Celtic made Collins their first £1million signing in 1990. During 6 years at Celtic Park, Collins made 221 appearances, netting 47 goals. His only trophy success was the Scottish Cup in 1995, a 1-0 win against Airdrie.
In 1996 Collins moved to AS Monaco by a "Bosman" transfer. Celtic tried to claim compensation for Collins as Monaco is outside the European Union. This was rejected as Monaco play in under the French Football Federation regulations, and are therefore covered when using the "Bosman" ruling. Collins helped Monaco to the Ligue1 title in 1997 and to the semi-finals of the Champions League in 1998.
Everton were to be the next destination for Collins in 1998. In two seasons at Goodison Park he made 53 appearances, scoring 3 times, before moving to London to play for Fulham. Collins stayed at Fulham for three years before retiring from a playing career that spanned 19 years.
John Collins made a scoring debut for Scotland against Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh on 17th February 1988 (2-2). Despite this his next game for Scotland is against East Germany on 25th April 1990 (0-1 defeat). He did not appear in the 1990 World Cup or Euro 92 but played every minute of Scotlands' matches during Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup. In the opening match of the 98 WC Collins scored the second goal of the tournament from the penalty spot, equalising a Cesar Sampaio goal. Brazil eventually won this match 2-1. On 17th November 1999 Collins played his last game for Scotland, a 1-0 win at Wembley against England in a Euro 2000 play-off match (unfortunately England had won the first match 2-0). This denied Collins the chance to play in Belgium.
After gaining his coaching qualifications, Collins became manager of Hibernian on 31st October 2006. A matter of 5 months later he led Hibs to their first trophy in 16 years when they won the League Cup. Hibs defeated Kilmarnock 5-1 at Hampden in the 2007 League Cup Final with goals from Jones, Benjelloun 2, Fletcher 2. Despite this victory Collins was in charge for less than 14 months. On the 19th December 2007 Hibs opened a new training complex with Collins apparently happy with this development. On the 20th December Collins resigned with immediate effect, what a difference a day makes! There had been some reports linking him with the Fulham managers job but this never happened.
This now brings us up to date and his joining Sporting Charleroi as manager, and a chance to renew his 'friendship' with Abdessalam Benjelloun.
Andrew Boyd
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