THE BRATTBAKK FACTOR: WHO COULD BE CELTIC’S TITLE-CLINCHING WILDCARD?
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
You don’t need to be a free-scoring hero with years upon years of service to Celtic to make your way into the club’s history books.
What do the names Harald Brattbakk, Tommy Johnson and Jean Joel Perrier Doumbe have in common?
They all scored goals that clinched trophies for Celtic, despite not making much of an impact in any other sense.
Brattbakk’s Goal Clinched it in 1998. Will Another Unlikely Hero Emerge this Season?
We all remember that moment in 1998 when, with 20 minutes to go clinging to an edgy 1-0 lead over St. Johnstone, in a match we had to win, not just to clinch the championship, but also to stop Rangers (Requiescat in Pace) from winning ten in a row, a much-maligned striker from Norway made his indelible mark upon Celtic’s trophy-laden history.
Harald Brattbakk had struggled to make an impact since joining midway through that same season. He similarly struggled thereafter, and despite a few promising moments, never did quite hit those heights again.
Still, you’ll struggle to find any Celtic fan of my generation with a bad word to say about the man.
A couple of years later, Tommy Johnson, a player of undoubted ability, but whose Celtic career was blighted by terrible injuries, scored the winner in a scrappy 1-0 win over St. Mirren that gave Celtic the title back in 2001. A few weeks later, we would go on to complete our first treble since the days of Jock Stein.
Johnson’s goal that day, in which he stumbled with the ball caught under his feet, before blasting it into the net from about a yard out is probably one of the ugliest league winning goals you’ll ever see.
Did it matter? Not in the slightest!
Johnson, like Brattbakk before him, retains a warm place in the hearts of all the Celtic fans who were there that day, or who remember that incredible season.
Then there is the curious case of “Joe” Doumbe. The Cameroun international defender scored a late winner in the 2007 Scottish Cup Final, and that was pretty much it for his Celtic career.
Again though, mention his name, and that Scottish Cup Final goal remains the focal point of the warm, positive discussion that follows.
So, do Celtic have a Bratbakk, a Johnson or a Doumbe in their ranks this season?
There are a few contenders, so let’s go over them, and the likelihood of an iconic emergence.
1) Kelechi Iheanacho
In the end, he turned out to be Brendan Rodgers’ final signing as Celtic manager. The Nigerian forward has struggled with injuries all season, fading in and out of the team as a result.
When he has played though, he gives us a directness that no other forward at the club seems currently able to. His power, his aerial presence and his instinctive finishing may well see him emerge as a hero, despite what has been a frustrating season up til now.
2) Tomas Cvancara
If there is one player whose Celtic career thus far most resembles that of Harald Bratbakk, then it is our enigmatic Czech striker. Much like Brattbakk, he joined a Celtic side mid-season, looking to be the hero of the hour and give us the goals we needed to reignite a season that looked set to crash and burn under the short-lived tenure of Wilfried Nancy.
Again, like his Norwegian forerunner though, despite promising early signs, and plenty of effort and industry, it just hasn’t really happened for the big man so far at Celtic Park.
With him being dropped last week, and his loan deal set to run out next month, it seems unlikely he’ll be a Celtic player next season whatever happens. But, does fate have one more card left to play in his short Celtic career? Stranger things have certainly happened.
3) Yang Hyun-Jun
If there was a prize for “most improved Celtic player” this season, Yang would certainly be the frontrunner. Allegedly just a missed phone call away from leaving last summer, Yang’s emergence as a potent winger with an eye for a pass and the potential for moments of individual brilliance is one of the few highlights among the Celtic squad this season so far.
He still has his detractors, but I think would doubt his effort, nor would they grudge him the honor of being the one who seals the title for us, if such a fate comes to pass.
4) Callum Osmand
We’ve moving into increasingly unlikely territory here. The young Welsh striker has just recently resumed full training after his bombastic start to his Celtic career was curtailed with a horrific injury just days after scoring in the League Cup Semi Final win over the Ibrox Tribute Act.
An Osmand goal to win the league would be absolute fairy tale stuff. But aren’t such things, and the regularity with which they happen exactly why we all love football so much?
5) Sebastian Tounekti
I’ll close out this list of hopeful speculation with perhaps the most divisive member of the current Celtic squad. Depending on who you talk to, and sometimes at what time of day you talk to them, Tounekti is either a player of great promise and flair, or a complete diddy.
I lean more towards the former, though the Tunisian international certainly has a point to prove ahead of this summer’s World Cup. He will make the national squad, but to be a starter, he’ll need to do something special over the next month or so. Winning the league, or perhaps even just a scoring a crucial winner against denizens of the Debt Star may be just what he, and indeed the Celtic support need, to cement his place for next season and beyond.