Henrik Larsson claims Harald Brattbakk is one of the best players he has ever played alongside, despite being constantly criticised throughout his short Celtic career.
The two will meet up once again on the park when Martin O'Neill welcomes Brattbakk's current club Rosenborg to Parkhead for their opening game of the first group stage of the Champions League.
Brattbakk was brought to the Parkhead club from Rosenborg during the season of 1997-98 by Wim Jansen for a fee of Stg£2.2million but the striker was never fully accepted by the Parkhead faithful.
The 30-year-old will always be remembered as the man who secured Celtic's last day of the season win to halt Rangers' nine years of league domination when he fired home the second goal against St Johnstone to help the Hoops clinch the title.
But Larsson believes Brattbakk may have suffered from a lack of confidence - even though he possessed the quality to be a great player during his time in the east end of Glasgow.
Larsson said: "It was always unfortunate that he got stick but I can only say my opinion and I think he is definitely one of the best strikers I've ever played with.
"If you look at the movements, look at his pace and how he could finish when everything was right.
"But, again, if the confidence is not right then the goals are going to get smaller."
Larsson believes Brattbakk would have become a hero at Parkhead had he played to his true potential right from the beginning of his Celtic career.
And, when asked the reason why Brattbakk is scoring so many goals in his third spell at Rosenborg, he replied simply: "He is a good player - that is why.
"If you look at the start that he had at Celtic he had his debut here against Rangers at home.
"He had a few good chances and unfortunately he missed those but he has scored some good goals as well.
"If he had tucked them away then I think he would still be here and be a great hero because he is a really, really good player."
Celtic face a tough test ahead of them in Group E, with Juventus and Porto being their other two opponents, along with Rosenborg. And Larsson insists the quality of opposition means it is impossible to predict how well O'Neill's side will do in their first ever Champions League campaign.
He said: "I think the important thing would be to enjoy it first and foremost and then we have to go out and play.
"Now it's the group stage and there are no away goals or anything so obviously we need to go out there and play as well as we can but it's hard to say where we'll finish."
"When you look at the group, there is Juventus, who are the big favourites and Porto and Rosenborg are two very good teams.
"So we have to hope that we can play really, really well."