SHOOT FOR PERFECT TEN
Ajeti is ready for challenge of making history and views friend Itten as just a rival now
ALBIAN AJETI lays no claim to being the perfect No10. Clutching his new green-and-white shirt, however, he vowed to do his best to deliver one.
‘I know that it’s a huge season for Celtic and Scottish football,’ said the Parkhead club’s new £5million signing.
‘I know what this means to take the No10.
‘But I am very positive about this season and I am looking forward to what is ahead.’
Ajeti began his new life at Celtic with some ground rules in place. With the social activities of footballers under close scrutiny, he accepts that sacrifices have to be made.
At the age of 18, the frontman was a friend and colleague of new Rangers striker Cedric Itten in FC Basel’s academy.
Yet the new signing has no plans to pick up the phone and renew an old acquaintance over dinner in the pair’s adopted city. In the eternal struggle for ‘the ten’, he accepts this is how it has to be.
‘I don’t think so,’ he admitted. ‘We’ve been good friends in the academy but this is it, we are big rivals now. This is football.’
The rivalry extends to the Swiss national team. While Ajeti made the breakthrough first, a year of frustration at West Ham United allowed new £3m Rangers signing Itten to edge ahead of him in the pecking order.
Ajeti stopped short of comparing himself with a city rival, but admitted: ‘I am the kind of striker who scores goals and loves to run in behind the defence, with the contact, and am quite a close-in striker. I can score with the left and the right, so that is my quality.’
The 23-year-old learned to live with comparisons years ago. His twin brother Adonis plays for Swiss club St Gallen. His older sibling Arlind plays for Vejle Boldklub in Denmark and opted to represent Albania rather than Switzerland at international level.
At an early age, all three were marked out as special talents. Albian and Adonis were just 16 when they turned down the chance of a lifetime.
‘Barcelona wanted me and my twin brother,’ said the new Celtic striker. ‘They were interested in signing both of us. It wasn’t a trial but we went over for a couple of days and were shown around the Barcelona academy and trained with them. But in the end we decided to stay in Switzerland with the Basel academy. ‘People say it’s hard to say no to Barcelona but not at that age, to be fair. When you are young you want to be with your family, with your brothers and friends, so it wasn’t that hard to say no.
‘My brother was keen to do it but in the end we decided to keep going with what we were doing in Switzerland.’
Before his 20th birthday he did move abroad, to join FC Augsburg in Germany, making just one appearance before returning to Switzerland.
His second spell at Basel was the most productive of his career so far, with new Celtic team-mate Mohamed Elyounoussi (left) providing assists for four of his goals in 2017-18. When the offer came to move to Glasgow, Elyounoussi provided a little help with that as well.
‘We had a chat and he tried to get me to sign for Celtic,’ said Ajeti. ‘It wasn’t needed, though.
I didn’t need to be persuaded to sign for such a big club.
‘We spoke more about the city and the life here in Glasgow.
‘I also spoke to the manager on the phone before I signed and he told me that he knows my qualities and what kind of striker I am.
‘He believes that I can fit perfectly into this team and that was a main reason for me to sign for Celtic.’
An unfulfilling 12-month spell at West Ham brought just 12 appearances and no goals.
Ajeti was signed by Manuel Pellegrini, but new Hammers boss David Moyes didn’t fancy him and, in these circumstances, it’s the norm for players to be
Mohamed Elyounoussi tried to get me to sign but I didn’t need to be persuaded
branded a ‘flop’. Yet Ajeti countered: ‘It was a good experience. I would say this was a year of learning, of improving mentally.
‘I didn’t play as much as I expected, so it was a year of learning.
‘It is not always easy to sign for a football club when there are changes like we had last year at West Ham. But it is how it is and I am happy to be at Celtic.
‘I think the work I did there was good, but every manager has different systems of football and you have to understand it because not everyone is the same.
‘It is always hard for a new manager to get the best out of the team. This is football.’
Initially Celtic looked at a one-year loan for the player with an option to buy. West Ham preferred a permanent transfer.
Addressing suggestions that he had to be persuaded to leave the English Premier League for the Scottish Premiership, Ajeti said: ‘For me, it was important that the boss Neil Lennon and the sporting director Nick Hammond showed me a lot of interest.
‘It was also important for me to feel like I would be an important player if I was going to sign for as big a club as Celtic. This was important.
‘But when you have a chance to play for them, with all the tradition they have and the history of this football club and the fans they have, I am happy.’
While Ajeti plays his international football for Switzerland, he hails from a family of Kosovo Albanians who speak Albanian in the family home. Yesterday his own satisfaction at signing for Celtic was almost matched by the president of his ancestral homeland.
Ilir Meta has made no secret of his admiration for Celtic on social media, going so far as to post a film of himself running along a beach shouting: ‘Hail, hail.’
Ajeti said with a grin: ‘Celtic is known all around the world, but especially where I come from originally.
‘People from Kosovo really support Celtic. They have a fanbase there and the President of Albania is a huge fan, so we actually grew up knowing about the club.’