Roy Aitken played 672 matches for Celtic and became club captain. Nicknamed the Bear, due to his curly hair as a teenager, Aitken is one of Celtic’s highest ever appearance makers. He enjoyed many highs in the Hoops, most notably lifting the Centenary double in 1988.
In total Roy won 6 league titles, 5 Scottish Cups and a League Cup. He scored 55 goals for the club and impressed sufficiently to be Scotland’s centre half on 57 occasions too. However, the Scottish Press were very vitriolic in their criticism of his performances on the international scene towards the back end of 1989. As such, Aitken asked for a transfer away from Scotland and Celtic reluctantly let him leave to Newcastle United for £500,000 in January 1990.
A fine captain, an everpresent and a Celtic icon; it is staggering to note that of Aitken’s 672 appearances for the Bhoys, every one of them came from the start and he was never once listed as a substitute!
Aitken was loved by the supporters in the Jungle who’d chant ‘The Bear, The Bear, The Bear is Everywhere Feed the Bear!’ and he was credited with being the single biggest reason why the Ten Men of Celtic were able to defeat the Treble chasing Rangers at Celtic Park one memorable Monday night in May 1979.
After a stint in management and coaching, Aitken rejoined Celtic in 2017, when he was named as one of the club’s ambassadors.
