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Fullname: Dion Dublin
Born: 22 Apr 1969
Birthplace: Leicester, England
Height: 6.02
Signed: Jan 2006
Position: Forward
Internationals: England
International Caps: 4 caps (none whilst with Celtic)

Biog

The signing of veteran Dion Dublin in late January 2006 caused more than a few raised eye-brows among a generally unimpressed Celtic support. Dion is one of a select group of players who have scored over one hundred goals in the English Premiership, so this was an experienced successful player coming to assist us, although was never destined to be another Lubo.

Well-travelled Dublin had just been released by his hometown club Leicester City and at 36-years-old had been struggling to make an impact with the Foxes in the English Championship. But Bhoys boss Gordon Strachan saw the experienced former Cambridge, Manchester United, Coventry and Aston Villa man as ideal short-term cover for a squad lacking depth up front and at the back.

Strachan – who had worked with Dublin at Coventry – also believed the player’s big personality and experience would help the squad’s younger and more inexperienced members. Ex-England international Dublin - he was capped four times - would spend the vast majority of his time at Celtic on the bench but during his spell at the club he did exactly what he was brought to do. The likeable Englishman certainly gave his all during his few appearances in the Hoops and he even netted a goal in the 3-0 CIS (League) Cup final victory over Dunfermline.

He was a workman-like player and past his best, but there was no doubting Dublin’s enthusiasm and in terms of effort he never let anyone down while in the Hoops. However, he was never spectacular (as expected) and basically just helped to settle things down in certain matches and direct the play. Seemed to smile a hell of a lot for some reason with a cheery persona, so came over as a very affable chap to the fans.

He did request a further one year extension(!) which thankfully to the relief of many the management decided against. He did fine in his few games for what we needed (a stop-gap) but not enough to want to use up a squad place for him for the next season. He was too old and we had to move on. Possibly would have been useful more as a coach if we were to retain him.

Notably, he was referenced by certain critics of Gordon Strachan to claim that he was helping out old mates too much (e.g. Telfer etc) but this is unfair. We needed some cheap cover in the squad and someone like Dublin would help in the short-term, but in fact he played more than even the manager thought we would need to use him. Nothing special but more than adequate and made himself popular with players and fans alike. We had no choice but to take on certain cheap options due to the failure to make it into the Champions League or UEFA Cup in the season following a humiliating exit to Artmedia Bratislava.

In any case, he was released by Celtic at the end of the season, and Dublin subsequently signed for Norwich in September 2006 and he remained with the Canaries until finally hanging up his boots in May 2008.

We hope him the best. He came, he played and he smiled a lot. A very likeable guy (has this been mentioned before?).

Playing Career

Club		From ____________	To ____________	Fee ____________	League ________________		Scottish/FA Cup ____________		League cup ____________		Other ____________
Norwich		20/09/2006	01/06/2008	Free	50 (20)	12	5 (1)	3	1 (2)	1	0 (0)	0
Celtic		30/01/2006	20/09/2006	Free	3 (8)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	1	0 (0)	0
Leicester		01/07/2004	30/01/2006	Free	49 (9)	5	4 (1)	1	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Millwall		28/03/2002	03/05/2002	Loan	5 (0)	2	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	2 (0)	1
Aston Villa		05/11/1998	01/07/2004	£ 5,750,000	120 (35)	48	5 (2)	1	14 (2)	8	10 (2)	2
Coventry		09/09/1994	05/11/1998	£ 2,000,000	144 (1)	61	13 (0)	7	11 (2)	4	0 (0)	0
Man Utd		07/08/1992	09/09/1994	£ 1,000,000	4 (8)	2	1 (1)	0	1 (1)	1	0 (1)	0
Cambridge		02/08/1988	07/08/1992	Free	133 (23)	52	21 (0)	11	8 (2)	5	14 (1)	5
Norwich		24/03/1988	02/08/1988	Trainee	No appearance data available
Totals				£8,750,000	508 (104)	183	49 (5)	23	37 (10)	20	26 (4)	8
				goals / game	0.29		0.42		0.42		0.26
					Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals

Honours

Scottish Premier League

• 2005-2006

Scottish League Cup

• 2005-2006

Pictures

• Player Pics

Dion's Game Record at Celtic