Jay Beatty (born 23 December 2003) is a supporter and the unofficial mascot of

Celtic Football Club The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigran ...

. He received attention thanks to Celtic player Giorgios Samaras and was an ambassador, in 2016, for the Celtic F.C. Foundation charity. He become known as a superfan and received support and recognition from other football clubs and their fans. On 11 May 2014, he was picked up by Samaras and carried around the pitch in front of 52,400 supporters at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also ...

. Beatty stayed with Samaras while Samaras gave his interviews, and Beatty rubbed Samaras' beard. Celtic manager

Neil Lennon Neil Francis Lennon (born 25 June 1971) is a Northern Irish football coach and former player. During his playing career he represented English clubs Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra and Leicester City. Lennon moved to Celtic in 2000, where he ...

gave Beatty his league winners' medal.

Celtic involvement

In July 2013, before a Champions League qualifier match in Belfast against Cliftonville, Beatty was invited to join Celtic on the team bus after training with them that day. He sang "Hail Hail the Celts are here" with the first team players. In January 2015 Beatty was invited by

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

Football Club to watch them play Celtic. At half time, he was invited onto the pitch and was given the chance to take a penalty. Beatty scored and celebrated with both sets of fans. Beatty's goal at Hamilton was later included in the

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As we ...

's "Goal of the Month" contest. He received 97% of all votes, beating all the professional players nominated for goals in the same month (January 2015). He was told that he had won by Georgios Samaras, via a video link from Saudi Arabia. On 23 December 2015 he received a video that included birthday wishes from past and present Celtic players and the Celtic management team.

Other recognition

In 2015, Beatty had two songs written for and about him, as well as social media pages dedicated to him. ''Wee Jay Celtic Bhoy'' was written and performed by Jim Scanlon of the Celtic band

Charlie and the Bhoys Charlie and the Bhoys are a Glasgow Celtic-themed Irish folk band from Scotland. They formed the band in the 1980s in Barlanark in the East End of Glasgow and played their first concert at the Squirrel Bar in the Gallowgate, Glasgow in 1989. T ...

and went into the Easy Listening Top 100 charts on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. ''Little Jay'' was written and performed by Patrick McDaid.

Awards

* Humanity and Sensitivity Award (Athens). * Spirit of Northern Ireland Award. * Crowned Sporting Hero at the Scottish Daily Record Our Heroes Awards. 2015. He was joint winner with Maria Lyle. * Appointed an ambassador for Celtic F.C.

Personal life

Beatty is involved with the Charity Down's & Proud which his parents set up to help educate parents of children with Downs Syndrome in 2013. He lives in

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

, Northern Ireland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beatty, Jay Celtic F.C. People from Lurgan 2003 births Sportspeople with Down syndrome People from Northern Ireland with disabilities Living people Association football mascots Association football supporters