Donati: Milan legend told me to join Celtic
By John Reid
Former Celtic midfielder Massimo Donati has revealed that Milan icon Andriy Shevchenko helped him win a move to Celtic Park.
Speaking to the Evening Times, the player – who is now at Hamilton – explained that a phone-call from the former Milan striker, who was a team-mate of Donati’s at the San Siro arranged the move.
He said “One afternoon in the summer I received a phone call and it was Shevchenko
“I was surprised because he had never called me, it was four years after I had left Milan. Then he told me ‘listen, do you want to go to Celtic?’
“I said ‘yeah why not?’ But I didn’t know so much about Scotland and Celtic.
“Soon I’m happy with that because I knew Celtic was good, but I didn’t know how good they were because Celtic is so big but I didn’t know.”
Donati played at Celtic for three seasons, winning a Scottish Premier League and League Cup in the process. His most memorable moment at Celtic Park was a last minute winner against Shakhtar Donetsk in a must-win Champions League game.
He left Celtic in 2009 just after Tony Mowbray took over as Celtic manager, moving to Italy with Bari.
After spells at Palermo, Verona and a return to Bari, Donati has once again found himself playing in Scotland, this time for Hamilton.
In other Celtic news, Martin O’Neill has paid tribute to Liam Miller
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