I always tease my gran Sadie about being a WAG, especially when she’s had her hair done
Pele wanted my papa’s shirt. He’s a legend’s legend
Natalie Chalmers, 26, is the granddaughter of Stevie Chalmers, 81, the striker who scored the winning goal against Inter Milan. My papa and gran mean everything to me and there isn’t a day goes by that we don’t talk.
I’m always teasing my gran Sadie about being a WAG, especially when she has been down the street getting her hair done.
I’ve grown up with football because my dad Paul played professionally for lots of clubs including Celtic and Swansea and of course my papa is perhaps one of Scotland’s most famous players.
It wasn’t until I was at school and people started asking me if I was related to Stevie Chalmers that I realised just how well-known my papa was and how big a deal his goal was. To me, he’s just papa.
He’s always been my inspiration and it’s lovely to think he has also inspired several generations of footballers and fans. He’s a very special man.
I have a photo of him with the European Cup on my mantelpiece and another of him scoring his goal in my hall.
My goal was to buy my own house, which I did four years ago in Stirling. He was my inspiration and the photos are a nod to my goal and his.
Papa will talk about the final if you ask him but he is not a boastful man and has remained humble.
My gran knows just as much about the match as he does as she was out in Lisbon with the ladies and lived it with him. She says she has never been so nervous and did a lot of praying.
It was a miracle my papa made it to Lisbon at all because a few years before, he fell ill with TB meningitis, which at the time was fatal. But Dr Peter Mackenzie, who was a Rangers fan, saved his life.
Thanks to him, my papa was able to fulfil his dream of playing for Celtic and helping them become the first British team to win the European Cup.
As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, I was asked to take part in the BBC1 documentary Glasgow 1967: The Lisbon Lions, which goes out on Wednesday. It was an honour to pay tribute to my papa.
We are a really close family. My gran and papa have six kids, nine grandkids and last week they became great-grandparents for the first time. We are all my papa’s No1 fans.
Even Pele rated my papa as he asked to swap shirts with him when Scotland played Brazil in 1966 at Hampden. He’s a legend’s legend.