WHEN Jostein Grindhaug, the manager at Norwegian top flight club Haugesund, agreed to loan Sebastian Tounekti, his gifted but raw winger, out to second tier Ranheim two years ago, he hoped that it would kick-start the young player’s career.
Grindhaug felt that Tounekti, who he had brought in from Eliteserien champions Bodo/Glimt the season before, needed to get regular game time at a lower level if he was going to push on and fulfil his potential.
A temporary switch to the tiny Trondheim outfit, whose EXTRA Arena stadium has a capacity of just 3,000, seemed like the perfect move for the then 20-year-old.
Things, however, didn’t go according to plan.
“Tounekti didn’t do that well at Ranheim,” said Kevin Nicol, the former Raith Rovers and Hibernian defensive midfielder who has played and coached in Norway for the past 20 years and is now the manager at Mjondalen.
“Sebastian dropped down into the First Division and actually struggled a wee bit. Mjondalen played against Ranheim and you could clearly see that he was a talented boy. But for some reason it just didn’t happen for him there. I actually heard that Haugesund were thinking about letting him go for free after that.”
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What a difference a couple of campaigns can make. The Tromso-born winger was kept on by Haugesund and he had a hugely impressive 2024 season. He ensured The Seagulls avoided relegation and won a second international cap for his adopted homeland Tunisia in a friendly against Morocco.
He was snapped up by Swedish side Hammarby for €1.2m back in February as a result of his bright displays for his club and has gone from strength to strength in the Allsvenskan this term. He has scored three times and set up five goals to help the Stockholm outfit move into second place in the table and into contention for just their second league title.
Nicol is, despite the difficulties which the player endured during his brief stint at Ranheim, not entirely surprised that Celtic secured his services after tabling a £5.2m offer on transfer window deadline day earlier this week.
“Sebastian had a wonderful last season and a half at Haugesund and that got him his move to Hammarby,” he said. “All of sudden, he seemed to mature. His performances were consistently good. It's amazing how quickly things can change in football.
“He's always been a very talented boy. He was at Bodo/Glimt, a big club over here, as a young lad. They clearly saw that he had good qualities and hoped he would develop with them. He didn’t manage to establish himself there, but there is no shame in that. He has really come into his own now. He had a good year or so in Norway and has been fantastic in Sweden.
“He has always been very exciting. He can go one v one offensively, he is a really tricky winger to be up against. He can go both ways, can go inside and outside. He's got a good right foot when he comes inside to shoot. I can understand why Celtic have now paid quite a bit of money for him."
“Teams which play a 4-3-3 formation and focus on attacking football need players like Sebastian, players who can go by people. Celtic will be hoping he can give them an extra edge in the final third, can create chances and score goals and can be dangerous going forward in many games.
“I think he will do well for them. He seems to have cracked the code a little bit. He is confident in himself now and is playing consistently from game to game. I am sure he will continue to develop well in the future. It's great to see a player from Norway managing to kick on so well and move to such a big foreign club.”
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Many talented footballers have moved to Celtic over the years and proved unable to cope with the scrutiny they are under as well as the pressure there is on them to perform to a high level on a weekly basis, win domestic silverware and excel in European competition.
Nicol conceded that Tounekti will need to be mentally strong to force his way into Brendan Rodgers’ starting line-up and remain there in the coming months.
“It's a completely different club to any that he's been at before,” he said. “Hammarby is a big club in Sweden. They've got a lot of fans and there’s a lot of interest in them. But there's not many clubs like Celtic or Rangers in Europe. They're fantastic clubs, but life is like a goldfish bowl in Glasgow. So there are challenges that he will have to get used to there.”
How does Nicol, the Kirkcaldy-born footballer who started out in the professional game with his home town club Raith Rovers in the 1990s and then spent three seasons at Hibs in the 2000s, feel that Tounekti will adapt to the pace and physicality of the sport in this country?
“There's more of a chance to flourish over here in Norway if you're technical,” he said. “It's less physical over here, especially at the younger age groups. So that tends to produce technically gifted players.
“The artificial grass surfaces that we use over here also leads to that type of football. It's much easier to use your skills than if you’re playing on heavy grass. A lot of good young players have come through in recent years because of the youth system here and Sebastian is one of them.
Nicol continued, “Sebastian has come through that set-up and will find Scotland different. He will need to keep his head a little bit more and show composure. He’ll come up against defenders who will certainly be willing to test him, see how mentally strong he is, go in hard against him.
“Obviously at every level in football you do get physical challenges, but I think Scotland is at a completely different level when it comes to the intensity and aggression that we have in our game. Sometimes the refereeing, too, l can be a little bit more lenient in Scotland I feel. It shall be a test for him I think.
“He is a technical player, he likes to take people on. It will be interesting to see how he deals with that. Time will tell I guess. But it bodes well that he's more mature now, that he's more confident in himself, that he’s been consistently good over a period of time. That should fill him with belief.
“He’s also got good players around him and a good manager so I don’t really envisage it being a problem. I am delighted that he has got this move and I hope that he goes on and does fantastic.”
