BOBO BALDE was a hard-man on the pitch. He bounced opponents about as if they weren’t there and was a constant risk of losing the head if things weren’t going the team’s way. David Marshall has recalled Si Ferry’s Open Goal about one such time that Bobo lost the rag after a defeat, forcing Alan Thompson to hide in a locker.
The Wigan goalkeeper, 35, started his career at Celtic before departing in 2007 after Gordon Strachan opted for Artur Boruc. Marshall told Ferry about Bobo Balde not letting the defence take stick from the rest of the team after results haven’t gone their way.
“Bobo was so good with the young lads. He would come in and if the lads were having a go at you he would stick up for you.
“The defence probably took a lot of stick because our top players were forward and the characters. The defenders were quiet, really nice guys.
“If things were going wrong the older lads would look to the back lads because Sutty is scoring 20 a season, John is scoring 30, Henrik scoring 50. Lenny and Lambo are brilliant, Thommo is creating so they’d look to the back lads and they’d take a lot of stick if things were going wrong but Bobo wouldn’t let it happen.
“After the Hearts game at home, we’d got beat 2-1. It was kind of because of me. John Robertson had a go at me that I should have come for a cross but it was never my ball to come for.
“At the time in the dressing room I was like ‘well I need to see it again but I didn’t think it was me’ and then the boys were having a wee bit. It wasn’t too bad, there was a bit of toing and froing and having a go at the lads saying ‘we’ve scored and we can’t keep a clean sheet’. We must have been going through that spell where we couldn’t keep a clean sheet.
“But then Petrov walked in and he’d just done an interview. He just came for Bobo and he’s flipped.
“It was like the Incredible Hulk, I never thought he was going to hurt anybody but the lockers in Parkhead you can actually go inside and Thommo was inside his locker and Bobo was chucking things.
“That was the only time I seen him go mad and it was justified. I remember speaking to Steve Walford a couple of days later and he said it was never your ball to come for and it settled from there.”
Having seen Bobo chase and flatten strikers, it is perhaps confusing to think that Petrov thought he could even get near the imposing figure of Balde. A far braver man than me.
This wasn’t the first time Petrov and Bobo had come together in the dressing room. Chris Sutton recalls another instance after training, again that left Alan Thompson cowering in the lockers. Whilst it may be the same incident, it is still good to show how mad Bobo was.
One day at training Stan kept having a go, telling him to do his job properly. Eventually Bobo snapped and said, ‘Shut up Stan or I’m going to go for you’. But Stan kept chipping away. When we got inside suddenly Bobo went chasing after him across the dressing room floor. He got Stiliyan by the throat up against the wall. I’m sitting there beside them, next to Thommo.
“Bobo had him by the throat with one arm, his right arm. What do I do?’ So I get up and I shove him as hard as I can. And he doesn’t move!
“He just lets Stan go, turns around, picks me up and throws me into my locker, breaking the door. Thommo? He was already hiding inside his locker cowering! But I like to think back on it now as the day I saved Stan’s life!”
Support Celtic Youth Development
Help raise money for Celtic Youth Development by joining the £1 weekly lottery and you could win up to £25,000 – just click on any one of the photographs below to join. Lots of our readers have already done so and they’re now doing their bit to help fund Celtic Youth Development that can deliver the stars of tomorrow and beyond. And you might even win a few bob too! And a special thank you to all The Celtic Star readers who have already signed up and are now supporting youth development to give us the Celtic Stars of the future…
