Former Atletico Madrid midfielder goes rogue with Celtic jacket at club press conference

One Spanish midfielder seems to love his Celtic jacket a bit too much.

You’ve probably never heard of Cristian Rodriguez, who used to play for Atletico Madrid and has since played exclusively in the Spanish second tier.

He is not the only Cristian Rodriguez to have played for Atletico – the other, a Uruguayan, was in the Benfica team that Gordon Strachan’s Celts beat 1-0 in 2007 – largely thanks to an Aiden McGeady masterclass.

This one doesn’t have such a decorated career – but he is a fan favourite at Spanish side Ceuta, who are competing at that level for the first time in their history.

And ahead of their match against Granada, he conducted his pre-match press conference in Celtic gear.

Spanish midfielder wears Celtic jacket to club press conference

Lamine Yamal’s Dad owns the jacket too – Celtic fans tend to lap it up whenever he’s seen wearing it on Instagram.

It’s probably selling more over there than it is in Glasgow at this point, given the ongoing Not Another Penny campaign.

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But here is Rodriguez acting normal at his club press conference with his Celtic gear on…

Now for the arguably more interesting part.

Ceuta are technically based in Africa. The autonomous city of Ceuta is situated on the North African coast, bordered by Morocco.

There is much more history that you can read about if you actually care, but geographically speaking, the area isn’t in Europe.

So if Ceuta were ever to play in European competition – and they are closer to achieving this than ever before – they would become the first team geographically based in Africa to play in European competition.

They have a few Moroccans in their squad, and were drawn against Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey in 2023, losing 5-0.

So that’s… something.

Spanish Celtic players

Celtic have had just four Spanish players in their history – the most recent of them, Alex Valle, is enjoying more playing time than Nicolas Kuhn at Cesc Fabregas’ Como.

Marc Crosas made 51 appearances for Celtic after joining from Barcelona in 2008. He regularly talks up the club, and is often seen back representing the Hoops at charity matches.

A solid season at Livingston tempted Martin O’Neill to take a punt on striker David Fernandez for £1 million in 2002, but he never scored in 11 appearances for the Hoops.

And who could forget Javier Sanchez Broto, the goalkeeper who had a brief but seemingly enjoyable time in Glasgow in 2003. He’s best remembered for his part in the ‘Beachball Sunday’ game which Celtic won 2-1 at Ibrox.