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Fullname: Andre Alexandre George Blackman
aka: Andre Blackman
Born: 10 November 1990
Birthplace: London, England
Signed: 19 November 2011
Left: 1 January 2013
Position: Left back, Left Wing-back
Debut: Aberdeen 1-1 Celtic, 3 Mar 2012, League
Squad No.: 39
Internationals: none
Biog
Andre Blackman had a long involvement with club football attending various esteemed academies from an early age. He had spent time with the wealthy youth academies at Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, after which he signed on with Portsmouth at the age of 16.
His first professional contract was with Bristol City in August 2009, however he was very rapidly released in only October 2009. After an unsuccessful trial with Leicester City he played for Dagenham & Redbridge before signing a contract with AFC Wimbledon on 1st June 2010 but again he was released before the end of 2010, and went back to Dagenham & Redbridge. It didn’t bode well.
Celtic Career
Andre Blackman came up to Celtic for a trial in October 2011. He played in several Development Squad games, and in November he was offered a short term contract to the end of the 2011/12 season.
It was common knowledge (and well documented) that he had had a string of off-field ‘incidents‘ and was credited with an ‘attitudinal‘ problem. It was hoped that the coaches of the Celtic Development Squad, the players and new environment around him would help him to screw the nut to become the player he could be with the ability he had.
However, his debut was one to forget for him. With players rested following international duty midweek, Izaguierre still injured and Celtic already 20pts ahead in the league, both new Celtic players Andre Blackman and Lustig were thrown in debuting as fullbacks against Aberdeen. Celtic had won 17 games in a row and hoped to keep the run going. However, Aberdeen were themselves unbeaten for 12 games and so no easy task. Blackman was over-eager and was booked after just 6 mins after a rash challenge. Later he scored an own goal (Celtic’s first conceded goal for seven games). In fairness, it was a deflection and his fellow debutant full-back (Lustig) was more at fault as it was from his side that the player came and Lustig was nowhere near him, Andre Blackman actually did mostly right and was very unfortunate. Only the harshest critic would hold it against him.
He was unfortunate at the other end of the pitch too, as at another point in the same match he was pushing towards the opposition box only to be hacked down just outside otherwise he’d have carried on racing into the box for a great chance at goal and you never know. He was on a good run there as well.
He was given token appearances after that, but few were convinced that he would make it. Hard working he may have been in those few appearances, but he didn’t seem to have the complete game or give confidence that he had the precocious talent to make it at the top.
To little surprise, in August 2012 he joined Inverness Caledonian Thistle on loan and things were to go from bad to worse. Despite an excellent start for his new club, where he collected a Man of the Match award on his debut, he was very soon out the first side. The next thing you know, his loan contract was abruptly terminated, and he was shipped back to Celtic. He was then freed by Celtic (very quietly with no publicity/press releases at all), and it was another unwanted notch on the post for him.
Rumours stated that his attitudinal problems had resurfaced and he was starting fights in the changing rooms, but all that was really known was that he was said to not see eye to eye with the manager, with complaints of a poor attitude and discipline (at Inv Caley at least).
His career was sliding down faster than a skier doing a slalom. Despite being a graduate of the prestigious Arsenal football training academies (with stints at Tottenham & fleetingly at Chelsea), he had become outshone quite vastly at Celtic by Lustig and Matthews in all areas in every measure, despite the latter two coming from less renowned training schools in comparison to Andre Blackman.
In the same week as Andre Blackman was seeing his loan deal ended at Inverness Caley, Lustig had just earned a well-deserved place in a ‘www.goal.com’ Team of the Week after a great performance in the second round of Champions League group stages matches. A stark contrast! Surely their career trajectories were penned to be the other way around? It remains an example and warning to other youth players.
Celtic has given many other footballers a second opportunity despite lack of success elsewhere, and on many occasions it has paid off (e.g. Larsson is a shining example after his poor spell at Feyenoord). Andre Blackman had his opportunity but had blown it in double quick time. He’d had opportunities at numerous clubs (which highlights his recognised potential) but was moved on from all and he even left some in acrimonious circumstances. Didn’t reflect well on him, and he wasn’t unsurprisingly to get another opportunity at a top tier club again.
For his own sake, we hoped he could sort out the reported ‘attitudinal‘ problems, because possibly only then would he maintain a place in a team. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even last long for an amateur side.
At Celtic, he would be best remembered for an unintended tackle. During a reserves side match, Andre Blackman went into a tackle but slid so far along he went off the pitch and straight into a man on the touchlines, knocking him right over. It was comical and gained repeat viewings on Celtic TV. The man in question? His manager Neil Lennon who saw the funny side. The tackle even won Andre Blackman a jovial award of “Tackle of the Year“. It kind of summed up his time at Celtic (and his football career); he just couldn’t get much right no matter what, and he could just end up in incidents without even needing to try.
Post-Script
For Andre Blackman, after the debacles in Scotland on top of the various incidents in England, he seemed to become a persona non grata and his career in the higher echelons of football had ground to a halt with no takers. It was miserable to see this happen to anyone, but there was little else to blame in this case but himself.
Finally, he won a place with Plymouth Argyle for the start of the 2013/14 season, but again it was very short-lived. Nothing seemed to be going right for him in football.
By the age of 24 he had gone through around eleven clubs and been cut from all. A charge for being caught stealing a £1250 jacket led to a community service charge against him, only just missing out on a jail sentence.
His career thereafter saw him sink down the tiers in football.
Few other players in football have managed to have signed for as many different clubs yet played so few times for each. Shows that many saw some ability in him, but it never worked out anywhere. He got some luck with Crawley Town, where he finally did manage to be a regular but that was in the fourth tier in England, and again he didn’t last long, only one year.
At the end of season 2017/18, after being released from High Barnet, his senior career was clearly effectively over. He never lasted longer than around a season at any of the clubs he was at. He did manage a very short spell at Southend Utd for season 2019/20 (third tier in England), before having to move to lowly Ebbsfleet Utd the same season, and so on. He appears to have wrapped up his playing career with Dulwich Hamlet in 2023.
Around the same time, Lustig had completed a long tenure at Celtic and was in the hearts of all the supporters with many great career moments and a well-deserved cabinet of silverware, sealed with a very warm send-off at the end of his time at Celtic. It could potentially have been Andre Blackman, but that’s another story that never happened.
It is not pleasant to read how Andre Blackman’s career had fallen off so sharply, but there have been plenty of others with a similar sorry story. We wished him the best.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 2011-12 | 1(2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 (2) |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 1(2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 (2) |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish Premier League
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Articles
Articles
Celtic star Andre Blackman insists he’s ready to shake off ‘bad-boy’ tag and be a hit at Parkhead
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/celtic-star-andre-blackman-insists-1166663ANDRE BLACKMAN last night thanked Neil Lennon and Celtic for saving a career that was heading for oblivion after he had been discarded by four clubs for being a hothead.
ByHugh Keevins
00:00, 13 JUL 2012Updated11:19, 31 JUL 2012
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ANDRE BLACKMAN last night thanked Neil Lennon and Celtic for saving a career that was heading for oblivion after he had been discarded by four clubs for being a hothead.
Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea and West Ham all had the Londoner and each one let him go before he was out of his teens, sparking a remarkable chain of events that took him to Celtic for one last chance to save his professional life.
The defender spent 18 months out of the game and had to seek financial help to pay his fees for a training academy.
But his luck then turned when the academy owner, a former Leicester team-mate of Lennon, contacted the Hoops boss and asked him to take a chance on a kid with a bad reputation.
The 21-year-old made three top-team appearances last term and has now set his sights on making a breakthrough in the new campaign after playing against Augsburg on the tour of Germany this week.
But Blackman admits he had to show humility and plenty of mental strength to get even this far after trouble-strewn years in London.
He said: “When I was only 14 I was joining in training sessions with the likes of Kanu and Freddie Ljungberg at Arsenal.
“But I was a kid with a temper and that short fuse got me labelled as someone who was trouble.
“You get stigmatised and that negative reputation follows you around wherever you go.
“Once you get a label in football it has a serious effect. Even if I said something during a training session or a practice match it was a case of ‘oh, there he goes again.’
“It didn’t matter how I expressed myself, it just sounded wrong to some people.
“People in the game made a judgment on me. However, I knew the real me and didn’t think I was such a bad guy.
“The consequence of moving around the clubs in London was that I never felt settled anywhere and couldn’t get my head right.
“But I knew all I needed was somebody who would take a chance on me and allow me to show that I could be a good player in the right environment.”
Glasgow would probably have been the last place Blackman felt he could have found refuge from his troubles but coincidence had a fatalistic part to play in turning round a career that was apparently on an irreversible slide towards a premature end.
Lennon’s former pal from Leicester, Jamie Lawrence, runs a football academy for young players who find themselves unattached to any club.
Blackman went there in the hope of resurrecting his career and rehabilitating himself within the game but needed financial help to make the transition from scrapheap to a new beginning.
He said: “I was determined that I wouldn’t give up the game.
“I contented myself with playing five-a-sides with friends to keep me ticking over until the chance I hoped for came up.
“Then I contacted an agent and asked if he could help me out with the fees for the Jamie Lawrence Academy. That was how I lived for a year and a half while waiting to see if my break would come.”
Lawrence contacted Lennon and vouched for a talent worthy of a second look and fresh shot at redemption – but Blackman knew the biggest contribution had to come from within.
There was no room for a return to the old ways that had left a quartet of clubs dissatisfied with him, regardless of the depth of talent he possessed.
And the combination of self-determination and the warmth of the welcome he received from everyone at Celtic Park worked towards impressing Lennon enough to offer a contract.
The youngster said: “I wasn’t so much nervous as anxious when I went to Glasgow for the first time.
“I knew it was my last throw of the dice and there weren’t going to be other options after being discarded so often.
“The whole experience of going to Celtic was a massive reality check. I knew I needed to show great mental strength to impress the gaffer.
“But I felt right at home from the word go at Celtic. I instinctively knew that I was in the right place and that I was surrounded by people who were willing to help get my career back on track.
“If I’m going wrong in any way there are people who pull me to one side and help.
“If Celtic hadn’t come along I would have continued to go in a downward direction. They gave me the platform to show that I’m a changed individual.
“I’m getting the chance to express myself on the park and I’m savouring every minute at Celtic. After all I have been through, I appreciate everything I have with this club.
“This is an important season for me after bedding in. I’ve made the change from England to Scotland and learned to cope with the weather in Glasgow.
“Now I want to compete with everyone for a place in the first team. I feel as if I’ve found a home in the game at last.”