I made my home debut against Barcelona but the next day a woman claimed I had made her pregnant – I was in the news
PAUL CADDIS lasted a remarkable 24 hours after making his debut for Celtic in the Champions League.
The right-back had to cover for Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi when the Scottish side faced Barcelona in their first game as a 20-year-old in 2008.
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Yet less than a day after his on-field highs, he hit rock bottom being the focus of a media storm.
During the game, Caddis, now 35, understandably struggled to keep the world-class Pep Guardiola-managed talent at bay, who would go on to win a famous sextuple.
Celtic performed well as they suffered a 3-2 defeat at Celtic Park.
Hesselink’s Jan Vennegoor scored the opening goal before Messi scored the quick equaliser.
Barry Robson gave hope to the Scottish giants before Thierry Henry and Messi completed the LaLiga giants’ comeback win.
Speaking of the game on the Under the Cosh PodcastCaddis said, “I knew no matter what I did, if I was being abused, they would.” [team and fans] would take care of me since i am a young lad.
“But when I was doing well, I had everything to win, so I was doing well.
“Playing against them was a whole other level. The boss teased me at half-time and said, ‘Can’t you see how those damn balls get taped to Ronaldhinho’s toe?’
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“Shunsuke Nakamura was brilliant up front but didn’t help me on defence, so it was fair.” [Eric] Abidal overlapped me for fun – I was over the moon. But what an experience.
“Right against Ronaldinho and stuff like that. The strongest a*** I’ve ever felt. As soon as the ball came in, the first thing he did was bang.” [back into you].
“When I recovered from the shortness of breath, the ball was miles away.”
Excitement surrounding his home debut faltered the next day, however, when a newspaper report accused the Scot of being the father of a woman’s unborn child, which he firmly denied.
Caddis explained: “I played on Tuesday night but on Wednesday morning I was on the front cover and on the back the same day.”
“Some girl came out and said I fathered her child, which was a load of shit.
“I looked at the back, which was buzzing and said, ‘Look at that picture of me and Ronaldinho,’ then I looked at the back and I saw a munter on the front who said I was…
“[The paper] had the story finished for about six weeks. It was a lot of shit, but she sold that dream to the newspapers and they printed it.
“I had to do a DNA test, at the time she got me thinking.” [the baby was mine] But three months later, it turned out that wasn’t the case.
Caddis made 22 appearances for Celtic before leaving and playing in the lower leagues of English football.
He currently works as manager of National League North team Hereford.