Hello everybody,

we are The Italian Celts CSC, the first Celtic official supporter club in Italy.

We are writing you this short message because we need your help. We are selling through E-Bay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=130297131991)  a Shunsuke Nakamura’s shirt. The shirt is a long sleeves one (size L) and it is the Celtic away shirt that the Japanese star worn during the away Spl match against Kilmarnock of the 4/3/09. At the end of the match Nakamura exchanged is shirt with that of Killies’s captain Manuel Pascali who then gave it to us.

Trough the selling of this shirt we want to raise money for the Sainam Foundation the Foundation of the Swiss Bhoy Claudio Romano. Claudio, many years ago, left Switzerland and moved to the South-East of Thailand to help local people to build a better future for themselves.

For further info you can go to www.sainam.net

We are sure you will help us.

Hail Hail                          

The Italian Celts CSC.

One of the most important memories of my childhood was the Champions Cup semi-finals match between Celtic and Inter Milan (not yet called the Champions Business League).  I do not remember what year it was.  The game was in Glasgow, it was pouring rain and among the Celtic team in their strange white and green striped shirts there was a small but gifted player with red hair and the number 7 on his shorts.

Celtic lost the penalty shoot-out, but that night was the night when my love affair with Celtic started.  It is the longest lasting love story of my life, a love affair without betrayals, lasting through the good and bad.  It is an affair which will last until the day I will be lying in my coffin, dressed in that famous green and white shirt (now polluted by a sponsor’s logo).

For me, it was a small triumph over nicknames like “carrot head” or “rusty head” as I used to be called.  I had finally found my role model in this small, but wonderful, right winger who was wearing that strange shirt.  From that moment my destiny was fulfilled, from that day I have become a Bhoy!

Even today one of the first things I check when I go online (wherever I may be) are Celtic’s news, new possible players, injuries, team plans, or just “gossip”: Celtic may well be the only constant thing of my life.  

All of this thanks to Jinky? Or it is a Karmic matter?  Was it also the first skirmish of my strangeness? At that time everyone I knew was supporting Inter Milan, A.C. Milan, or Juventus.  Instead, I was supporting a team nobody where I was living even knew about.

Of those years I also remember another very painful setback, the one at St. Siro Stadium. It was the Champions Cup final against Feyenoord.  Black and white TV images brought that first childhood suffering, caused by the love for my team.  What I didn’t know was that it the end of a wonderful era, the end of the “Lisbon Lions!”  And strangely enough, I have no memories of this wonderful team’s greatest triumph, the night in Lisbon when we beat Inter Milan in the Champions Cup final, what a pity!

Even today when I have some free time I go on my computer (or PSP) and play with some football manager game, I always choose to be the Celtic manager. Sometimes I would like to change, to try another team, but it does really not make any sense to me. Celtic or nothing!  I really like to create my own Celtic team, a team that wins championships and Cups.  For a middle aged man it may not be really such a great achievement, but at least it helps to keep the child inside of me alive.

Honestly, sports in general do not interest me anymore.  It disgusts me to see the amount of money thrown to pay players who act like superstars (whatever it may mean) and behave just like brainless spoiled brats!  Then I take solace thinking about Tommy Burns, another of the idol’s of my youth, another “red head”, another “Celtic Man” through and through!  A man who played football in the team he dearly loved, never a star but a true human being, a man who I was lucky enough to meet!  He played under the rain, the snow, in the freezing cold without gloves or any other fancy garments, he played the Glasgow Celtic way.

Even though football no longer interests me, I can’t stop loving my Celtic. I really think that Celtic is much more than a football team, it is a way of being, a culture based on the ideals of freedom, justice and equality who have roots in the struggle for Ireland’s freedom under the British bloody occupation and from the consequent fight from freedom of the people of this beautiful country. 

And this “infinite” passion took new energy thanks to new friends I met through the most unlikely of sources, that virtual “thing” called Facebook that I used to think being quite useless (I signed up only trying to promote Sainam’s work, pretty unsuccessfully I must say).

So here I am. Me, a man who always loved being out of the “herd”, someone who always liked to be by himself. But now I found new enthusiasm in sharing this surely irrational passion with new friends scattered all over the world.  

Me, a guy who when in a bar watches the people comparing them to Ban Naudom’s Borabu when, at dusk, they go a drink in the rice field’s ponds. 

Me, a man who when the people of his village dance around following the KonYao chariot (it is a traditional rite, where they dance to the rhythm of Morlam music) always just watches them, from a distance and with detachment. They are dancing (and drinking) all together while I stay out, even though they repeatedly call me to join the dance. 

A call that I always kindly decline.

I stubbornly kept myself out of the herd, as a lone wolf wandering alone in the forest, just observing but now I wonder … am I preposterous or just a kind of loser? Maybe a bit of both, but now I really feel happy to be part of this group of people who support Glasgow Celtic, I like to be with them, to get angry to rejoice and suffer for the absolute futility of a football game. Yes, I am glad to be part of this green and white herd, to be among people I never met and than I will probably never meet but with a heat which beats…green and white.

Who knows, maybe this year I will also dance around Ban Naudom’s dusty roads, following the MorLam chariot. Maybe I will throw away my shyness mixed with presumption and will finally jump inside the herd, making the people of my village happy, goofily dancing because I finally understood that there is nothing wrong in the sense of belonging, I feel is a natural need of every human being and that it is nice to share with other human beings moments of joy (and pain as well).

Are Jimmy Johnstone and Tommy Burns to thank for all of this?  Will I have to blame them for the poor figure I will do dancing around Ban Naudom?

In any case, together with Danny Mc Grain, Bobby Lennox, Roy Aitken, Davie Provan, Packie Bonner, Naka, Henrik Larsson and many others they have been an important presence in my life even though nobody of them will be more important than Glasgow Celtic F.C. because they are not the players who make Celtic, but it is Celtic who makes the players!

Long live Jimmy Johnstone and Tommy Burns – you’ll never walk alone!

© – copyright Claudio Romano

PS: Hail Hail is a way of greeting among Celtic fans and has obviously nothing to do with infamous “Hitler salute”, our values are obviously totally the opposite of that!

When i received the proposal for held the Annual General Meeting in Roma, honestly i was put in difficult to sign for my presence, as i’m marriage with 2 children. Luckily I was there and now I can show my happiness to meet old and new friends and mix up with all of them passion and joy for Celtic during these 3 days.

Say Thanks is nothing in compare of your achievements about the meeting you have done, but for me say only and simply Thanks is everything, as shake your hands to received everyone who get into our big Celtic family.

I leave off names and nicknames as I could forget many of bhoys there, but it ‘will stay on me for ever your faces and smiles, but overall our meeting, a sign whom shows that if Italian’ style football support divides, Celtic Glasgow Fc joins. And this the aim of our club.

Hail Hail

Alessandro “Boretim” Boretti – President of The Italian Celts CSC

Dear Bhoys finally we managed to photograph the brick bearing the words of our club to Celtic Park. The photos were made possible by the obstinacy of a dear friend of our club called Paddy, who has endured the cold to find the brick and can shoot photos. Thank you Paddy and Helen for you fantastic pics. The brick is placed in the Jungle Wall 2.

HAIL HAIL THE CELTS ARE HERE

Dear Bhoys and Ghirls , there we are. Only a few days with our 2 Official Meeting to be held in Rome. For all members, supporters and sympathizers of the Bhoys the appointment is for Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 12:30 pm (the start of the match is at 13.30) at the Finnegan’s Pub in Via Leonina. The pub is available through the stop Cavour (direction from Termini Laurentina) METRO B.

HAIL HAIL THE CELTS ARE HERE

The Italian Celts CSC hopes to all members, to their families and to all the visitors, a wonderful Christmas. A Christmas that is dedicated to peace and solidarity, remembering and helping those most in need.

HAIL HAIL

Welcome home Italian Celts. But, in reality we all want to go Back to Celtic Park. This was the feeling of everyone of us when we landed at Orio al Serio Airport and we returnerned to our homes. It means that all of us had fun. We felt good all together and we strenghtened that “family relationship that Celtic Fc shed upon its supporters.They were two fantastic days in which we experienced a lot of very exciting moments. One of these was the delivery of a silver plate to Scott McDonald as the best player of the last season.It was esciting to see the joy on Skippy’s face when he received the trophy and this joy will always stay with us in our hearts and minds. to say thank you to Massimo Donati who was very kind and came to say hello and to chat with us for a little while. And then thank also to the people who, from Italy, gave us a lot of advice which were very useful. Thank also to all the Irish and Scottish people who welcomed us in a very warm way and they made us fell as if we were at home,as if we were their brothers. A thank you with a capital T. And now all we have to say is: see you next time.

All the pics on the: http://theitalianceltscsc.spaces.live.com/

Daniele Giordano, 17 years old from Poggioreale (Naples) joined few months ago Celtic Fc, coming from Lecce youth team.

Q: Daniele, how did you join Celtic Fc?

A: I played four years with Lecce, but during the last season I didn’t feel good so the only way to go away was to choose a foreign team. Many teams, both from England and from Spain were interested, but in the end I chose Celtic, because I think this is the team in which I can show all my qualities better then anywhere else.

Q: What can you tell us about your first days in Glasgow? Were they hard? It’s a city a bit different from the ones you were used to live in.

A: Well, it’s difficult at the beginning. The first big difference is surely the climate. Then, obviously, the language. But I am improving with my English.

Q: What about Celtic Fc? How did they welcome you?

A:  Celtic Fc is organized very well, but one thing in particolar impressed me: the people. They are very very kind. I must say I have never met before people who are so kind. I was welcomed in a wonderful way.

Q: Then, tell us something about your relationship with your team mates.

A: It’ all right. They welcomed me very well and since the first day of training they considered me one of them.

Q: Now are you the first goalkeeper of the Youth Team?

A: Yes, now I am the first goalkeeper of the team. My coach is Stephen Woods and I have a very good relationship with him.

Q: Did you know anything about Celtic Fc before joining the club?

A: Yes, I knew something, but not very well. Now I can say everything is very beautiful here.

Q: Have you heard about the big rivalry between Celtic Fc and Rangers?

A: Yes. My team mates told me something. It’s a big rivalry that exist in every single league, from the youth leagues to the Scottish Premier League.

Q: Have you met Massimo Donati? What has he told you?

A: Yes. I have met him. He is a very kind person, and he has said to me that, if I need something, I will be happy to help me.

Q: Have you already been at Celtic Park?

A: It’s a theatre. Another wonderful place is Lennoxtown.

Q: A last question: do you play also for an Italian National Youth Team?

A: Yes. I play with the Under 18 Team.