Celtic legend Tommy Gemmell’s football boots sell for £18,000
By Democrat reporter
No other left back in Scotland could lace them, but the football boots Tommy Gemmell wore to score during Celtic’s historic European Cup triumph have sold for £18,000 at auction in Glasgow.
The left-back struck the equaliser against Inter Milan in 1967 as Jock Stein’s men became the first British club to lift the famous trophy.
For the past nine years the battered Adidas boots have been on display at Hampden’s Scottish Football Museum. They were bought by an anonymous private collector.
The boots were part of a private lot being sold at McTear’s Sporting Medals and Trophies Auction by a Glasgow businessman who was a friend of Gemmell’s family.
The auctioneer’s hammer came down at £14,000 but the boots will cost £18,000 when buyer’s commission and VAT are added.
Gemmell, who died in March 2017, aged 73, played 247 times for Celtic from 1961 to 1971 and scored 37 goals.
During a glittering career the defender won the European Cup, six league titles, three Scottish Cups and four League Cups.
He was also capped 18 times for Scotland.
His boots had been owned by a man whose father was friends with both Gemmell and Auld.
The father was with the defender after a training match in 1967 and asked jokingly if he could have a “token from Tam”.
Gemmell tossed him his worn out boots and said: “I wore these in Lisbon, tell the wee fella to look after them.”
Brian Clements from McTear’s said: “Any memorabilia associated with Celtic’s momentous 1967 European Cup win is important but the boots that scored one of Celtic’s two goals are on another level entirely.
“We knew there would be significant interest in the lot and we were not disappointed. There was some fierce bidding with the boots eventually selling for £18,000 to a private collector.”
Other Lisbon Lions items sold at the auction included Jimmy “Jinky” Johnstone’s match-worn jersey from the ill-tempered game against Racing Club in the 1967 World Club Championship in Uruguay, which went for £5,400, and Bertie Auld’s Adidas holdall from the European Cup, which fetched £2,300.