Stefan Johansen

Good luck.

I'll reserve judgement to what I see on the pitch.

I judged Pukki too early and that might have jinxed him

 

Looking forward to seeing him play.

 

Hope he asked the journo, Who are they?


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Welcome to Celtic Mr. Johansen

 

Excited about this one, hope he does the biz.

 

As Celtic manager Neil Lennon has discovered to his cost with the likes of Mo Bangura, Teemu Pukki and Amido Balde, seven-figure transfer fees do not come with a guarantee of goals and glory.

With some signings, however, there is a sense that the personality of the player significantly increases the likelihood that he will be a success.

Of course, as the small print is wont to say, past performance is no guide to future results but the lingering impression after speaking to Stefan Johansen, the Norway midfielder who completed his £1.7 million move from Tippeligaen champions Stromsgodset on Wednesday on a 3 1/2-year deal, was that the 23-year-old will not be found wanting.

He is, quite clearly, a driven individual. He was up against it from the off after being born and brought up in Vardo, a tiny town east of Istanbul and Kiev and cursed with an Arctic climate.

Johansen was obsessed with football and clearly had an aptitude for the game but, while his peers accepted that their location was an insuperable barrier to their ambitions, he left his hometown as an adolescent in order to pursue his dream.

“I come from all the way north in Norway,” he said. “When I was 14 I needed a move because you can’t go for professional football up there so I went to Bodo/Glimt, which is also in Norway but lower down.
“I played there for six years and then moved to Stromsgodset. I had a fantastic time there, a great coach helped me a lot.
“However, I needed that move. I didn’t do well in Bodo/Glimt but at Stromsgodset I got a new start. I worked hard and played well and we won the league last season but when a club like Celtic comes after you, you don’t have the possibility to say no.”
The squall squeezing the life out of Glasgow yesterday would hardly have registered on Johansen’s radar as he revealed the obstacles he had to overcome during his formative years.
“In Vardo there’s a little bit of football but it’s a place of just 2,000 people so, of course, you can’t be a professional there,” he said.
“That’s saying nothing bad about the place or the people there. But that’s the reality. If you are going to move on in football, you need to get away.
“They do everything there, they go skiing, they drive snowmobiles, all the winter sports. There was one football pitch and one indoor hall with just a floor – not an artificial surface but a hard floor.
“I was always the kid playing football, me and two or three other friends – but they’re not in the game any more.
“When it was winter there was a lot of snow on the outdoor pitch and we went to the indoor hall but, if there was any green on the pitch, we were there.
“I used to pretend I was Guti or Zinedine Zidane from Real Madrid. I had seen them on television and loved the way they played.
“They were probably the smartest guys in the football world. It was fantastic to watch, because they always looked capable of finding an opening that no-one else could.”
Johansen was supported by his family when he vacated Vardo and their support was invaluable during that period of transition when it appeared that their confidence (and his own) may have been misplaced.
“My mother and my brother came with me when I moved at 14,” he said. “It was quite a big decision ... it means leaving behind friends from your childhood, everyone you’ve known from one to 14 years, and it was difficult to leave them at that age.
“But I made new friends and everything went fairly easy. I had something to aim for and I got a professional contract when I was 16, which is when it’s legal in Norway, so I was very happy to be there.”


He looked up to Guti and Zidane. If he's anything like Guti I'll cream myself

 

Is that you coming out the closet?













:frilly::frilly::frilly:

 

Welcome pretty happy at this!

 

Well that was a quick signing, seems like it all happend very quick

 

was more referring to this...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96LfIH3fai8"]Guti Best Assists - YouTube[/ame]

 

Welcome to the Hoops Stefan

 

Hopefully the lad has alot of success with us.

Now for a goalscoring poacher please Lenny.

 

Welcome to Celtic Stefan Johansen

The £2million signing from Norwegian champions Stromsgodset has already set his sights on helping the Hoops clinch the title and making an impact in Europe.
The 23-year-old midfielder can’t wait to walk out at Parkhead in front of a 60,000-capacity crowd.

“I love the idea of that,” said Norway international Johansen.

“You shouldn’t be afraid of that. If you are then you should find another job.

“This is what you dream of. When you are 12 or 14, you dream of playing for your national team and a big club in Europe.

“Now I’m playing for the national team and I’ve also just arrived at one of the biggest clubs in Europe, so it can’t get much better than that for me.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To come to a club like Celtic is probably the kind of thing that 100,000 kids dream about – and here I am. It is inspiring me.

“It is a chance I need to take. I need to work even harder than I’ve done until now. I need to be 100 per cent about the details.

“I love to play for a club and give something back to the fans. This is something I’m looking forward to very much.

“It’s a fantastic club, the best in Scotland. They play in Europe almost every year and the fans are probably the best in the world, so it’s a very big step for me.”

Threads merged

 

* just realized someone bet me to it. Mustvof not refreshed my page for a good bit haha

 

I don't want a poacher or a penalty box striker.

I want a well-rounded forward who is capable of scoring goals from all sorts of distances and positions. That is what Celtic has been missing going back years.

Will that cost us more? Yes. But its money thats needed to be spent.

 

Got a good feelin about his one. Prediction.......this time next year he'll be our 'indispensable' midfield man!

 

I'm not great at geography but how does that make sense?

 

Agreed, see Hernandez at Man U, poacher supreme but not a patch on Rooney or RVP (although I'd still have him). We need a well rounded striker, we can't afford passengers in the CL