Neil Lennon

Neil Lennon (born June 25, 1971 in Lurgan, County Armagh) is a Northern Irish professional footballer, who currently plays for Celtic F.C. in the Scottish Premier League, and is now the club captain.

After coming up as a trainee at Manchester City in 1989, Lennon has played for Crewe and Leicester City, before moving to the club he supported as a boy, Celtic, in 2000. For Northern Ireland, Lennon has been capped 40 times, scoring two goals. He has previously captained the squad.

Lennon decided to retire from international football in August 2002 upon receiving a sectarian death threat before a Northern Ireland match versus Cyprus. The threats came after his alleged claim that he wanted to play for a United Ireland team[1]. The threat was made by Loyalist Volunteer Force, although the organisation later disputed this. The death threat was met with widespread disgust from both sections of the community in Northern Ireland. [2]

In addition to this, Lennon has encountered abuse on and off the field from fans of opposing teams during his five year spell in Glasgow. In 2003 two students were fined for shouting sectarian abuse, spitting at, and head-butting Lennon [3]. In 2005 vandals sprayed "You are a dead man Lennon" along with sectarian slogans outside his Glasgow home. [4]. Police tried unsuccessfully to track down a "Neil Lennon RIP" banner which had made brief appearances at Old Firm games at Ibrox Park [5]. Three members of the independent Rangers fan-site Follow Follow were banned after posting a cartoon of Lennon being hanged [6]. The site's moderator claimed that two of the banned users were Celtic fans, although he admitted he could not prove this.

Lennon is seen by Celtic supporters as a committed player, and as a result of this he was recently been made Celtic captain. He recently scored his third goal for Celtic in their 8-1 win over Dunfermline.

When former club Leicester sacked Craig Levein Lennon was linked with a return to the midlands side in a player manager role. He went on record as saying he was flattered but wanted to captain Celtic to the SPL title.