Sean Connery, the actor who didn't want to be a footballer

Not only the world of cinema is in mourning today for the passing of Sean Connery. The Scottish actor, who played James Bond and starred in films such as The Untouchables of Eliot Ness or Indiana Jones, he could well have been a footballer. At 23, Connery played for Bonnyringg Rose Athletic. During a match with his team, a Manchester United scout saw him for the first time and was struck by the skill of one of his players.

That footballer was Connery. The scout for the ‘red devils’ met with him and even offered him a contract to sign with the Manchester team. The Scotsman, however, and despite being tempted by the offer, decided to reject it. “An elite footballer begins his decline with 30 years. At that time I was 23. In the end I decided to be an actor “He confessed years later. A decision that, as he himself indicated, turned out to be one of the” smartest “things he ever made.

A football lover since he was a child, he was the protagonist of one of the most curious stories that are remembered in Scottish football. Connery was a declared fan of Celtic Glasgow from a young agebut overnight that changed. “I have always supported the team that performed the best soccer,” he revealed in his autobiography. “For years that was Celtic, which was the first British team to win a European Cup. But over the years I switched to Rangers”, He defended. A change that even made him the victim of “some spit” while walking around Glasgow. That shift in support for the historic rival was never understood by many, despite his close friendship with David Murray, former Rangers president. But, as he himself said, “religious affiliations mean nothing to me”. Scottish football loses a special fan.