Celtic Football Club 2018/19 Home Shirt

On the back of this shirt sits the most famous surname in African football, worn by an American in the service of a Scottish club. Timothy Weah, son of George Weah, the only African Ballon d'Or winner in history and at the time the sitting President of Liberia, arrived in Glasgow in January 2019, loaned out by a PSG where Neymar and Mbappé left no room for an 18 year old. He scored on his debut and dived into one of the strangest and most successful seasons in recent Celtic history: Brendan Rodgers bolted for Leicester in mid February, Neil Lennon returned in an emergency, and the club still completed the treble treble, a third consecutive domestic clean sweep, with an eighth straight championship and the Scottish Cup. The golden champions patches on the sleeves and Dafabet on the chest, with Magners promoted to the back, complete the uniform of that winning machine. Weah left in May, six months and two trophies later, bound for Lille, Juventus and the big nights. This shirt caught him at the beginning: a giant name on a frame still growing.

Here at Hoopster this shirt gathers improbables: an American with Africa's most famous surname, son of a sitting President, scoring for a Scottish club on the way to a third straight clean sweep. Hoops have geographies like these.