IT is fair to say that Dedryck Boyata isn’t much of a drinker. Celtic’s Belgian central defender is a man who has had an invite to three cup final parties but has yet to savour a drop of champagne. When he says it has to be an “exceptional moment for himself” to treat himself to a tipple he isn’t exactly talking about settling down on the sofa to watch his favourite box set or the sun coming out on a Bank Holiday Monday.
When the rest of his team-mates were cavorting around the Hampden pitch in celebration of the first silverware of the Scottish season, November’s BetFred Cup final against Aberdeen, Boyata didn’t budge. Sat in the stands with a recurrence of the hamstring problem which had left him a virtual bystander in the early days of the Brendan Rodgers regime, he wisely decided that staying sober was the wisest choice.
Cup finals in his Manchester City days were also a sober affair, first as an unused substitute as Roberto Mancini’s side won the FA Cup against Stoke City back in 2011, then when despite playing every round of the club’s 2014 League Cup final run alongside Mattia Nastasic, he was supplanted by Martin Demichelis and his countryman Vincent Kompany when the final came around. So it is saying quite something when this quietly-spoken 26-year-old hints that he may just be prepared to break the habit of a lifetime and break out the champagne should he help Celtic complete what is only the fourth treble in the club’s history and record what would be an historic unbeaten domestic season.
“First of all I don’t drink that much,” said the 26-year-old. “If I have a drink it has to be an exceptional moment for myself. But at that moment [the BetFred Cup win] I was more focused on myself because even though I was still injured I don’t think the alcohol would have helped me. I was watching from the stand because I was barely playing a game back then. I played one game in November then hurt my hamstring again and it was a hard moment. Saturday? If we win it I don’t know what’s going to happen. If we win it would be an exceptional moment!
“I was on the bench for the FA Cup final with City against Stoke but I didn’t get on,” he added. “I played all the games for the Carling Cup then was in the stand for the final three years ago but that’s another story. Was it disappointing? Of course, but that’s life. So I’ve never actually played in the 11 starters [on cup final day] and of course it would be good to play in a final. It’s a great achievement. But it’s going to mean nothing if we don’t win.”
If Boyata has had little problems keeping the champagne on ice after clinching the first unbeaten Scottish top flight campaign since 1899, even that achievement would sour a little if Aberdeen spoil the party on Saturday. “It feels great [to be ‘invincible’],” he said. “It’s a big word, you know. Obviously at the start of the season we didn’t really think about it. Then with the results you get the more you think about it and now it’s done it feels unbelievable. But obviously it would be very hard if we lost that final. It’s the last game we have to play, a game where we will give 200 percent. We’ve been invincible in the league. But we’ve got another game and I think we’ll forget everything if we lose this final.”
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