Top football agent Raymond Sparkes has revealed how Polish duo Artur Boruc and Maciej Zurawski were the victims of a Celtic contract botch as they kicked off their Hoops careers.

An administrative blunder by Celtic's finance department saw both men initially receive the wrong pay cheque.

The 63-year-old admits that he can laugh about it all now but back then it caused ructions when Boruc and Zurawski learned what each other earned.

Sparkes brokered the deals which saw both players sign for Gordon Strachan's side back in 2005 after convincing the former Celtic manager to go on a whistle-stop scouting mission of the duo in Poland.

Incredibly Strachan and Sparkes witnessed two separate 45 minutes periods of two games in one night as they embarked on a mad dash across entirely different parts of the country.

"I remember vividly and distinctly selling the idea to Gordon Strachan that he should come with me to Poland to watch these two guys play," Sparkes said. "We had an unbelievable time zig-zagging to two different matches in different parts of Poland on the same night to make sure we saw them both in action for 45 minutes. I remember Boruc coming off the pitch and grabbing him and saying 'come and meet Gordon Strachan'.

"The rest is history. I did the deals and both players signed and did rather well. Artur was a young, aspiring footballer at that time. Zurawski was already a Polish international. There were clearly two different contracts to negotiate and two different things at work and at play.

"Celtic were looking to the future with Boruc and they were addressing their immediate situation by signing Zurawski. There was a three million euro bounty on Zurawski's head that they needed to pay to secure his signature and there was a level of salary that was commensurate with that level of transfer and experience.

Celtic Way:

"We didn't want to dive into the Boruc situation so he would come to the club for a period for him to introduce himself to Celtic and for Gordon to have a look at him. All of that was fine and two separate deals and contracts were struck.

"After both players had signed on the dotted line I took them into Glasgow to meet my bank manager and to open bank accounts for them when Celtic paid them their dues.

"We set everything up for the two of them and I duly sent all the paperwork to Celtic and their finance or accounts department. Somehow there was some kind of administrative mix-up and the worst thing that could ever have happened at this point did happen.

"Zurawski's wages were paid to Boruc's account by mistake and vice-versa! Now at this point, it might appear like a laughing matter but it certainly wasn't back then because we had a situation where both players knew exactly what the other one earned and that was not a good place to be.

"I promised Artur that everything would get sorted in due course and that it wouldn't be long before everybody would see his natural talent which would then see him earn the same wages as Zurawski soon enough."

Zurawski stayed for three years and inherited the number seven shirt from Juninho Paulista. He was christened 'Magic' by the Celtic faithful, scored the winner in an Old Firm derby at Ibrox and finished the club's joint top scorer in 2005-06 alongside John Hartson.

Boruc went on to become a cult hero among the fans and stayed in Glasgow's east end for five years, earning the moniker 'the Holy Goalie' and making high-profile penalty saves against Manchester United and Spartak Moscow. He even notched a spot-kick himself in a memorable 11-10 League Cup semi-final penalty shootout win over Dundee United.

"Artur, in my lifetime, is as good a goalkeeper as Celtic have ever had," Sparkes added. "Magic was a good servant and did the business for a short period of time. He was a class act and a class footballer."But Artur stayed on for a number of years and created the 'Holy Goalie' status for himself and is revered as one of the best Celtic goalkeepers of my lifetime. I am very proud of that."

READ THE FULL BIG INTERVIEW WITH RAYMOND SPARKES HERE