Celtic FC, the official soccer club of American St. Patrick’s Day, finally has an American player: Timothy Weah, from NYC, is lighting up the Scottish Premiership since he joined the club earlier this month.
It’s a big moment for countless Irish-Americans and Irish-in-Spirit-Americans who wear their Celtic strip to the bar only on March 17. Now’s there even more reason to support the club.
Celtic is a symbol of Irish identity and the club’s jerseys have become a staple of St. Patrick’s Day fashion in the United States. I saw several, for example, when I walked nearby the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan last year, a few at a Dropkick Murphys concert in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day 2007 and two in a bar in Omaha on St. Patrick’s Day 2016.
Even mayors wear their strip on St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s Mayor Dan Devine of West Allis, Wisconsin sharing a selfie inside city hall:
As far as I can tell, Weah is the very first American to wear the green and white hoops since John Blackwood in 1899. Even that’s debatable. Blackwood was reportedly born in South Africa, but others source list his birthplace as Maine, according to The Celtic Wiki.
Dominic Cervi, a goalkeeper from Oklahoma, has appeared for the Celtic reserves, but never cracked the first team lineup.
Soccer in NYC 