MARVIN COMPPER is in Celtic’s history books as one of the club’s most baffling transfers.
Brendan Rodgers sanctioned a £1.2million move for the RB Leipzig central defender in January 2018.
Compper played his first – and last – game against Morton in a Scottish Cup-tie at Parkhead on March 3 – exactly seven years ago today.
A double from Moussa Dembele and one from his French countryman Odsonne Edouard gave the Hoops the anticipated 3-0 victory over the Cappielow side.
NOW YOU SEE ME…Marvin Compper in action in his only Celtic appearance.
Compper lasted 83 minutes before Rodgers replaced him with Callum McGregor as the game eased to a conclusion.
The home fans offered some polite applause as the centre-back was withdrawn and no-one in the ground that afternoon realised that was the last time they would see the German in the green-and-white hoops.
Compper certainly made an impression with his very first kick of the ball – as CQN reported at the time – when he hit a sloppy pass across the back line to Jozo Simunovic.
Visiting attacker Gary Oliver latched on to the wayward pass, but delayed in shooting and Kristoffer Ajer raced back to concede a corner.
Compper, now 39, spent one and a half years at Celtic, but never got near the first team again for a competitive game.
On July 2 2019, he was eventually offloaded to MSV Duisburg. On August 1 the following year, he announced his retirement.
Maybe someday we’ll find out what on earth that transfer was all about.
The Celtic team that day against Morton was: De Vries; Ajer, Simunovic, Compper (sub: McGregor 83); Brown, Ntcham, Tierney; Forrest, Rogic (sub: Musonda 68), Sinclair (sub: Edouard 46); Dembele.
ALEX GORDON
