Moyes puts his shirt on the legends

A Celtic old boy explains to Phil Gordon how the mystery of a treasured memento was unravelled

It has taken David Moyes almost 20 years to find out that the framed shirt which hangs in his house did not belong to the Dutch master he thought owned it. The former Celtic player's most treasured memento is not, it turns out, a genuine Johan Cruyff after all: merely a Marco van Basten instead.

Moyes is not likely to find his insurance premiums dropping off. In Holland, Van Basten – robbed of his career at its goalscoring peak by cruel injury – is on the same hallowed plateau as the great Cruyff. On Wednesday, two of European football's most celebrated reputations – those of Ajax and Celtic – will undergo their own harsh scrutiny to see which is the genuine article.

Between them, they have won the European Cup five times. Hardly the provenance of two sides forced to endure a third qualifying round tie. Yet, it has been their recent past which brings suspicion of their right to exhibit in the Champions' League gallery alongside the continent's wealthy elite.

Ajax won the trophy just six years ago, and reached the final again in 1996, before their fabulously talented squad fell prey to rich predators such as Barcelona and Milan. Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert, Jari Litmanen, Edwin van der Saar and the De Boer twins, Ronald and Frank, are just some who left for fatter contracts elsewhere. Amsterdam's pride is now a European select.

Celtic, of course, have to go back much further to trace their own epoch. Though winners of the European Cup in 1967 and beaten finalists three years later, it is now 19 years since the club posted a decent result in Europe: ironically, it came against Ajax.

In Amsterdam's old Olympic Stadium, Celtic delivered a personal best in 1982 that would have been gladly embraced by Jock Stein's Lisbon Lions of the Sixties. Ajax were put to the sword on a rainy September night, with a swashbuckling 2-1 victory thanks to George McCluskey's last kick of the game.

Moyes was a mere teenager then, but the man who almost took Preston into the Premiership in May can easily recall the night he helped tame an Ajax team that contained Cruyff in the twilight of his career, and young tyros such as Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Jan Molby and Jesper Olsen.

"Just being on the same field as Cruyff seemed to be incredible to me only a couple of years after leaving school," reflected Moyes. "In the first leg at Parkhead, we drew 2-2, but I was so nervous before the game I remember praying the floodlights would go out before we started so the match would be called off." Moyes prevented Celtic blowing their own fuse, the young centre-half setting up an equaliser for Frank McGarvey which kept the tie alive for the return trip to Holland.

In Amsterdam, Moyes came off the bench with McCluskey after an hour to play his part in Celtic's victory, but in the joyous, hugging aftermath in the tunnel he made the mistake which has taken two decades to solve. "In those days, teams were simply numbered 1 to 11. I wanted Cruyff's shirt, but had to make do with swapping with one of the young Ajax subs. It was No 14, which is Cruyff's fabled number. For years, I thought it was his until six months ago a team-mate, Danny Crainie, sent me the match programme. I looked down to see who No 14 was and found Van Basten's name. I am even more proud now and if I get the chance, I'll get him to sign it."

Whether Celtic will be gracing the Champions League or the Uefa Cup this month is down to Martin O'Neill. If the Celtic manager can coax anything like the performance which upstaged Manchester United in last Wednesday's pulsating 4-3 friendly success, then the Scottish Premier League champions will have a chance against a team who only qualified by squeezing into third place in the Dutch league on the final day of the season.

Moyes urges caution. "I would not write Ajax off because they have had a few bad years adjusting to all their best players leaving. Ajax are a proud club with a great past, but although they have a lot of young players, that should not be looked on unfavourably. They have one of the best youth systems in the world, and remember players such as van Basten, Cruyff, Davids and Kluivert were all once young kids until they made people take notice.

"I hope Celtic can start to regain their prestige in Europe under Martin. The win over United was thrilling and really raised their profile in England, but even Sir Alex Ferguson took a while before he had success with United in Europe because there is such a big gulf between that and domestic football."

More than 8,000 Celtic fans will be in the Amsterdam ArenA to see if the spirit of Moyes and the class of '82 lives on. Yet few Celtic teams have been more tailor-made to wear the green and white shirt than O'Neill's.