Billy Sharp has reflected on rejecting Neil Lennon’s Celtic twice during his playing career.

The striker is a legend of English second-tier football, particularly at boyhood club Sheffield United, where he made over 350 appearances and scored over 100 goals.

In each of his two spells in charge of Celtic, Lennon tried to sign Sharp. The first came in 2013, when the departure of Gary Hooper left an ideal gap for an English goalscorer to fill.

The next came nearer the end of Sharp’s career in 2020, when Leigh Griffiths took a break from first-team action due to off-field issues.

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Billy Sharp on Celtic: ‘I had a couple of chances’

Sharp told Arif Ahmed: “I had a couple of chances to go to Celtic, which I don’t think many people know about.

“Neil Lennon tried twice to sign me, but I was at Sheffield United and my heart took over. European football, people say ‘you must be mad’. That’s how much Sheffield United meant to me.

“My wife’s Scottish, she’s a Hearts fan, so that was nothing to do with it. I could have played in Scottish football, could have played in Europe, but I just didn’t feel it was right. Especially in COVID times as well, because people were saying, ‘you’re mad, Celtic Rangers.’

“And I was like, ‘there are no fans, blah, blah, blah’. “When I went to T in the Park, when I flew from Southampton to Scotland to watch Calvin Harris. I returned hungover the next day, and I was on the back of the Scottish paper.

“I was going, and I was like, ‘wow, it was close’. Neil Lennon rang me twice. That’s not a regret; it just could have been a little adventure that I’d like to have explored.”