Rod Stewart calls himself 'silly' for tears at legendary football match
Rod Stewart has branded himself “silly” for sobbing uncontrollably as he watched his beloved soccer team win a crunch match this week.
The “Maggie May” hit maker was caught on camera breaking down in tears as he saw Scottish side Celtic beat Spain’s FC Barcelona 2-1 in a European Champions League game in Glasgow on Wednesday.
Stewart was shown footage of the incident during an appearance on Graham Norton’s U.K. talk show the following day, and confessed he was embarrassed by the emotional moment.
He told the audience, “Barcelona is supposed to be the best team in the world and they are brilliant. If you like football they are the best team to watch and they have such a huge bank account they can buy any player they want. Celtic, on the other hand, have a minimal bank account. So, to take them on and actually beat them is just wonderful… (I’m a) silly old sod.”
The interview with Stewart airs in the U.K. on Friday.
Elton John calls Neil Lennon to congratulate him
"I had a lot of texts from people in the game which was fantastic but I got a call yesterday (Thursday) from left field from Sir Elton John believe it or not, congratulating me," Lennon said Friday.
"I thought my missus was winding me up but it just shows you the interest it has generated among a lot of people.
"I don't think he was as emotional as Rod but he did tell me when he was chairman of Watford and they got to the 1984 FA Cup final (won by Everton) he was so emotional that he did cry before the game.
"He was very knowledgeable about the game and knew a lot about myself and it was great that he took time out to call me, as he is going to Australia on tour."
Lennon has had a long association with Celtic as both player and now manager yet, remarkably, has never met arguably the club's most famous fan.
"Do you know, I have never met Rod," Lennon said. "I didn't get the chance to see him after the game.
"He does e-mail me from time to time so I hope to get to meet him soon.
Celtic 2-1 Barca
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That's 100% rad if a football team made your town feel whole again. Super motherfucking rad as shit, no joke.
I'm just trying to understand it from the perspective of someone who grew up in a town where sports was not at all important. That isn't even as much a personal perspective on sports as it is the fact that my entire town didn't seem to care whether the local HS's team won something or not.
I agree on sports culture. I don't get into sports myself, but mostly I see even fanatical fans as pretty benign. Like, if that's your thing, great. I have things I get super into that other people think are stupid. But then there's shit like the coverup at Penn State (as an extreme example) and other situations where people just completely lose touch with reality, as if sports really do matter more than other things...things like not torching cars or excusing pedophilia. There is definitely a tendency, in the US anyway, to place a really bizarre amount of importance on it culturally.