Like Jota, Haksabanovic could settle and thrive at Celtic under Postecoglou
A 23-year-old winger and former teenage sensation who initially stalled when making his breakthrough into elite senior football, before finding his feet at a new club and beginning to fulfil his massive potential.
Yes, that describes Filipe Jota. But it also summarises Celtic’s signing, Sead Haksabanovic — a versatile, technically gifted, modern, all-rounder of an attacker.
Haksabanovic was born in Sweden, in a small town in the south called Hyltebruk, and represented his homeland in the under-17s and under-19s. However, he has opted to play senior football for the nation his family hail from.
“People were quite sad when he chose Montenegro,” Swedish football journalist Frida Fagerlund tells The Athletic. “Actually, it sparked something within the Swedish FA, because they became more cautious after that about players with dual nationalities. They wanted to look after talent more.”
As with Jota in Portugal, Haksabanovic was a prodigy who attracted attention in his mid-teens — in 2015, he made his first senior appearance for boyhood club Halmstads at 15, becoming the second-youngest Allsvenskan debutant in history — and quickly developed into a mainstay of the side.
“I just couldn’t believe that he’s just 23 years old now, it’s mad,” Fagerlund says, “he’s been around for ages. He was known as the second best Swedish talent of his generation after Alexander Isak.”
He made his Montenegro debut as a late substitute in a 4-1 World Cup qualifying win over Armenia in June 2017, a month after turning 18. A high-profile move to the Premier League in West Ham United followed that August.
As with Jota and the transition from Benfica B to the Lisbon club’s senior side, Haksabanovic struggled to make the step up from Swedish football and he only ever made two appearances for the Londoners, both in cup competitions, for a total of 71 minutes.
There was an unproductive loan to Malaga in Spain in the first half of 2018-19 (two more appearances, 53 minutes) and by that January his once-promising career looked to have stalled. “Maybe he wasn’t good enough for West Ham at the time, but it was too early for him then,” Fagerlund adds.
Then Allsvenskan side IFK Norrkoping offered a lifeline loan move back to Sweden, which represented to Haksabanovic what Celtic were to Jota last season — a place to get his development started again.
Still only 19 at the time, Haksabanovic enjoyed an excellent 2019 season, and better followed in 2020 after he joined Norrkoping permanently, with 20 goals and assists combined across 31 games in all competitions. “That return to Allsvenskan with Norrkoping was so important because he was just so good and he got to show it,” Fagerlund says.
Russian club Rubin Kazan bought Haksabanovic for around €6.5million (£5.5m) last summer — the third-highest fee ever paid for an Allsvenskan player, behind the €9million Borussia Dortmund spent on Alexander Isak in 2016 and the €7.8million Ajax coughed up for Zlatan Ibrahimovic 21 years ago.
“When he left, that transfer fee shows he was too good for the league,” Fagerlund argues. “There was talk of bottom-half Premier League clubs and La Liga clubs showing interest but he was tempted by Russia. It was big money.”
After a tough start, he had started finding his feet in Russian football before that country’s attack on Ukraine in February.
Following the invasion, football’s world governing body FIFA introduced a new regulation that allowed non-Russian players in the Russian league to suspend their contracts until the end of the 2021-22 season and temporarily join new teams in other countries.
Haksabanovic took up this option and enjoyed a productive few months back in Sweden with Stockholm side Djurgarden in the early stages of the April-to-November domestic season. He told Rubin he did not want to return to Russia this summer — they were relegated to the second division in his absence — and he has spent the past few months training on his own.
He was initially suggested to Celtic earlier in this window, but at that stage, Rubin were intent on recouping the full amount they paid Norrkoping.
As the relationship with Haksabanovic deteriorated and the window approached the end without much other interest in the player, a cut-price transfer became more palatable to Rubin. Celtic saw value in this lower fee and made their move.
His personality aligns with what Celtic manager Postecoglou wants from his players in terms of character.
“He’s a very serious, professional person,” Fagerlund describes. “A great mentality. I remember him as this guy who stayed after everyone else left, and always did extra training. He was obsessed with improving all the time. That’s why I think this move would be very good for him — to go to a high-pressure club like Celtic suits him.”
What about his tactical profile? “His strengths are his versatility,” Fagerlund says. “He can play on either wing cutting inside, he can play as a No 10, but I prefer him on the wing. He’s definitely a playmaker, a good passer who can score goals too. Good technique.”
As Fagerlund notes, Haksabanovic has been a winger for most of his career — and prefers playing off the left so he can cut inside onto his favoured right foot — but is capable in the middle as a No 10. He has also played, pertinently for Postecoglou’s system, as a No 8.
Although Haksabanovic played as a left-winger during those few months at Djurgarden, in Kazan he featured in both central roles with the Russian club largely using a 4-3-3, which became a 4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1 at times.
His versatility could be invaluable and it would not be surprising to see him as a No 8 at some point this season, but it is believed Haksabanovic is being signed first and foremost as a winger.
In that case, how does he stack up to Celtic’s current options out wide statistically?
Haksabanovic’s data is split between spending the first two-thirds of last season with Rubin up to early March this year, and then his brief time with Djurgarden in April and May. The rest are how Celtic players performed in 2021-22.
He looks to hover around the middle of all metrics, suggesting he is something of an attacking all-rounder.
Team tactics and league strength inevitably make these comparisons imperfect, so turning to data platform smarterscout — which gives players a rating from zero to 99 based on either how often they perform a given action compared to others in their position or how effective they are at it — can offer further insight into his strengths and playing style.
As a No 8 for Rubin, his attacking output is inevitably his biggest asset.
He has a decent rating for xG from shot creation (61 out of 99), which is adjusted to an English Premier League standard and so one would imagine it would be higher when related to the Scottish Premiership. The metric also suggests his actions regularly lead to scoring chances. He gets away plenty of goal attempts, too (shot volume rating: 93 out of 99).
His defending intensity (57 out of 99) suggests he is active and aggressive off the ball, which tallies with Postecoglou wanting a more naturally pressing option from his attacking players. He loves a dribble (carry & dribble volume: 79 out of 99) and is frequently involved with link-up play (67 out of 99), suggesting a level of good technique.
The eye test underlines his technical ability.
Haksabanovic is a great dribbler with delicate close control, which can often bamboozle opponents in one-v-one situations, who excels in the dainty one-touch link-up play Postecoglou likes to see from his attacking players.
An incident during Djurgarden’s 4-0 win over Sirius in late April captures both these qualities at once.
Standing his man up wide left, he shimmies from left to right…
He has great vision too — and the ability to execute the passes he spots.
There was an excellent assist for Rubin, in a 3-2 defeat at Zenit Saint Petersburg back in February.
He spots team-mate Vitaly Lisakovich peeling off the defender’s shoulder and plays a perfect ball for him to run onto behind the defence. You can imagine him in a Celtic shirt, hitting similar balls to marry up with the well-timed runs of Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda.
He has great vision too — and the ability to execute the passes he spots.
There was an excellent assist for Rubin, in a 3-2 defeat at Zenit Saint Petersburg back in February.
He spots team-mate Vitaly Lisakovich peeling off the defender’s shoulder and plays a perfect ball for him to run onto behind the defence. You can imagine him in a Celtic shirt, hitting similar balls to marry up with the well-timed runs of Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda.
Of course, creating and scoring goals is only half the job description when you are a Postecoglou winger.
Haksabanovic does appear to possess the aggression off the ball to press relentlessly, as his smarterscout rating for defensive intensity earlier implied. Like Maeda, he is not only fast and tireless but also angles his pressing intelligently so that it is as effective as possible.
Here in that same recent 2-0 defeat in Finland, his starting position is behind centre-back Leo Vaisanen, who is receiving the ball from his goalkeeper. But rather than just sprint towards Vaisanen, he arcs his run so he is closing down the forward passing option…
No footballer is perfect, though. “In terms of weaknesses, I think his decision-making at times,” Fagerlund says. “Maybe shooting from distance when he should pass or cross. That’s something that comes with age and coaching, I think he’ll improve in this area, though.”
There was one particularly galling example of Haksabanovic choosing to shoot instead of pass — which does seem to happen often — during a 1-1 draw with Bosnia four days on from that Finland game. A colleague makes an overlapping run down the left into a good crossing position, but instead of taking that option he cuts back onto his right foot and shoots over.
His team-mate’s arms-out, palms-up exasperation is clear to even novice readers of footballers’ body language.
Ultimately though, a player of European-level quality with the versatility to play off either flank has to be seen as a welcome addition. With his defensive work, creativity, goal threat, and smart link-up-play, he could also function as a Postecoglou No 8.
There is no guarantee Haksabanovic will work out, but after a summer that has understandably focused on trimming the Celtic squad’s fat and improving its depth, this is a player who would potentially raise the level of the starting XI.
On paper, a front three of Furuhashi, Jota and Haksabanovic is a thrilling prospect, especially with Maeda, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Liel Abada and James Forrest in reserve.
A midfield three with Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Haksabanovic — with Matt O’Riley, David Turnbull, Aaron Mooy and Yosuke Ideguchi in support — is similarly compelling.