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Personal
Fullname: Reginald Waldi Blinker
aka: Regi Blinker
Born: 4 June 1969
Birthplace: Paramaribo, Suriname
Signed: 6 Aug 1997
Left: 1 June 2000
Position: Winger
Debut: Berwick Rangers 0-7 Celtic, League Cup, 9 Aug 1997
Internationals: Holland
International Caps: 3 caps
International Goals: 0
Biog
Regi Blinker is a name which provokes mixed emotions among Celtic fans from that time.
The Surinam-born Dutchman – valuation £4.5m – was (in)famously ‘traded’ in a part-exchange deal with Sheffield Wednesday which saw crowd favourite Paolo Di Canio leave Glasgow and head to Hillsborough in August 1997. It was always going to be difficult for the dreadlocked winger to replace the mad but majestic Italian and in many ways Regi Blinker was always going to find life hard at Parkhead as he was viewed by some fans as a sign of the club’s lack of ambition. It wasn’t fair on him.
Regardless, he had a fine start, scoring on his debut in an easy 7-0 victory over admittedly lowly Berwick Rangers in the league cup.
With Celtic desperately trying to stop Rangers’ seemingly unstoppable march to the dreaded tenth successive championship, Blinker made a slow start to his career in the Hoops and even got himself sent off for elbowing an opponent during a dismal home defeat to Motherwell.
He reacted well to that set back and from that point on made a noted if unspectacular contribution to the cause as the Bhoys lifted the Coca-Cola Cup (League Cup) and much more importantly the title, as they prevented Rangers from bettering the 9-in-a-row league successes of Jock Stein’s Celtic.
In that league cup final, Regi Blinker in the 27th minute became one of the few footballers ever to genuinely hit his own backside with a shot. A cross came over from the right and Blinker attempted to volley it into the net with his right foot but hit it directly downward. As his momentum carried him forward the ball came up and hit him on the backside.
At times brilliant (seldom) but more often anonymous, Blinker’s Celtic career was never to return to such heights as he all too often put in displays which showed glimpses of real talent which were overshadowed by a distinct lack of courage. Inconsistent and often ineffective he hit a low when he conceded a needless penalty in Celtic’s shameful Scottish Cup exit to Inverness Caley in February 2000 which spelled the end for the John Barnes managerial run. Some would argue that error was a blessing in disguise in forcing change, but only in retrospect following the later arrival of Martin O’Neill.
He did get to score at Ibrox, but it was against Dundee Utd in a Scottish Cup semi-final, but still a valuable goal that took Celtic to the final.
In fairness to Blinker, he was at Celtic in a tumultuous time. Celtic were desperate to win the league title in 1997/98 to stop Rangers making it 10-in-a-row and things didn’t look great at the outset, but still won against the odds. Thereafter there was a large churn in managers and players going in & out over the seasons which didn’t help matters for stability. Blinker was not wholly favoured by the managers as a regular starter, but did manage to play a good number of games over the time he was at the club.
From that moment on his departure from the club was inevitable and after 12 goals in 57 appearances he headed home to the Netherlands on a free transfer to RBC Roosendaal.
For all his faults it is perhaps a little cruel that in football rhyming slang the term Blinker had come to mean ‘stinker‘ – (i.e. having a rubbish game). The whole Di Canio swap issue hovered over his head unfairly, and comparisons were inevitable throughout his time at Celtic, and possibly the burden wore him down. It simply was a very poor deal (to put it mildly) and he was at the end of it all to have to handle the consequences. Bizarrely, Jock Brown (joint manager) who helped to sign him seems to not admit any errors in this.
We wished him all the best, and disappointingly for himself he left just as Celtic finally turned the corner with Martin O’Neill to arrive as manager and lead the club on to a domestic treble amongst other great achievements. Then again, in truth, it is unlikely he would have been able to unseat any of the first team players in O’Neill’s team as the standard had risen so high.
The remainder of his career saw him back in the Netherlands, retiring in 2006.
Upon retiring, Blinker became a publisher of lifestyle magazines for the professional football world in Holland, the company being named Life After Football.
Playing Career
| Club | From | To | Fee | League | Scottish/FA Cup | League cup | Other | ||||
| Sp. Rotterdam | 17/06/2001 | 2006 |
Free | No appearance data available | |||||||
| RBC Roosendaal | 01/08/2000 | 17/06/2001 | Free | No appearance data available | |||||||
| Celtic | 06/08/1997 | 01/06/2000 | £1,500,000 | 36 (12) | 9 | 5 (2) | 1 | 8 (0) | 2 | 5 (4) | 0 |
| Sheff Wed | 04/03/1996 | 06/08/1997 | £ 275,000 | 24 (18) | 3 | 1 (0) | 0 | 2 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Feyenoord | 01/08/1995 | 04/03/1996 | 248 (3) | 49 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | |
| Den Bosch | 01/12/1988 | Loan | 25 (0) | 6 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | |
| Totals | £1,775,000 | 333 (33) | 67 | 6 (2) | 1 | 10 (0) | 2 | 5 (4) | 0 | ||
| goals / game | 0.18 | 0.12 | 0.2 | 0 | |||||||
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