BETTER PACE YOURSELVES
MATTHIAS FANIMO insists his speed isn’t the only stumbling block Celtic will have to negotiate in Bosnia tomorrow night.
The Sarajevo forward was dubbed the joint fastest footballer in the world when recorded at 9.8 metres per second during his West Ham days.
Even now, six years on, he hit a speed of 34.36km/h as recent as last week’s Europa League defeat of Buducnost Podgorica, a game in which he scored the winner.
That’s not all that far off the world’s fastest, Paris St Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe, who was clocked at 38km/h last year.
But Fanimo is quick to stress there’s much more Celtic should be wary of as they bid to repeat last season’s Champions League qualifying success over Vinko Marinovic’s men.
The Englishman said: “That is a strong attribute to my game but I do have many other attributes alongside my pace.
“Hopefully we can use my speed to our advantage to try to exploit Celtic.
“It is going to be a good game. The club played Celtic last year over two legs and lost both games.
“But it is a new season and anything can happen. It’s a new team here compared to the one from last season and everyone is pretty confident.
“My own confidence levels are really good going into the game and it will definitely be a good test going up against this calibre of opposition.
“It would be amazing to score the winning goal again. But it would be equally as special if any of the lads scored the winner that took us through to the group stage, I honestly would be just as happy.
“A win against Celtic would mean everything to the players. After the last round everyone was just ecstatic. Hopefully we can use the confidence from the win in the last game and do something.”
Sarajevo have won five on the bounce since their Champions League exit and the Bosnian FA saw to it that their weekend clash was postponed.
Fanimo, 26, added: “Hopefully it pays off. In the last month or two we have been slammed with games every three days.
“This is the first time we have had a longer break in between matches.”