It may be 50 years since his finest hour, but Gemmell’s legacy will never be lost . . .
From turning the final on its head in Lisbon in 1967 to becoming the first British player to score in two
Coltness United in 1961. He signed provisional forms with the Parkhead club on the same evening as another youngster who would also go on to become a Celtic legend, not to mention a close friend, Jimmy Johnstone. Their escapades off the park became as renowned as their exploits on it in the forthcoming years.
Gemmell had soon forced his way into the Celtic first team and impressed supporters with his confident and aggressive playing style and, in particular, his ferocious shot and penalty kick-taking expertise. No fewer than 31 of his 64 goals came from the spot. He only failed to convert three. But to begin with his efforts didn’t bring considerable joy to a club which was toiling badly.
Like so many, though, he blossomed following the arrival of Stein as manager in 1965. He developed into an exceptional defender who also posed a serious threat going forward. His longrange strikes were renowned long before Lisbon.
The two men had, particularly towards the end of their professional association, an often fractious relationship. But Gemmell was always unstinting in his praise of Stein the coach. “I thought he was brilliant and light years ahead of his time or any other manager with whom I was involved,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I still loved that man.”
He became the first Celtic player to score in the European Cup when he struck in the first round match against Zurich in Switzerland in 1966. He and John Clark were the only players involved in every minute of all 10 games during that watershed continental campaign.
Gemmell could play either left back or right back equally well despite being right footed. In 1967 France Football magazine named him the sixth best player in the world. In 1970 sports journalists in both Hungary and Brazil, who knew a decent footballer when they saw one, voted him the best right back on the planet.
Many players have been credited as being the first full-back to overlap. It is nigh on impossible to state with any certainty who started the practice. But just last week, Jonathan Wilson, the sports journalist and author who specialises in the evolution of football tactics, rated him as being one of the five pioneering players in his position along with Nilton Santos (Brazil), Silvio Marzolini (Argentina), Giacinto Facchetti (Italy), and Ruud Krol (Netherlands).
He won 18 caps for Scotland between 1966 and 1971 and scored one goal in an 8-0 win over Cyprus. But it is his ordering off in a 3-2 defeat against West Germany in Hamburg in 1969 for which he is best remembered by members of the Tartan Army. He was red carded after chasing after Helmut Haller, who had just fouled him, and scythed him down.
Gemmell spent two seasons at Forest before returning, after a brief stint in the United States with Miami Toros, to his homeland in 1973 and turning out for Dundee for three years. He captained the club to a League Cup final victory over Celtic in 1973.
He went into management on Tayside and also spent a spell in charge at Albion Rovers before giving up