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| Full Name | Nadir Çiftçi |
| Known as | Nadir Çiftçi, Nadir Ciftci |
| Date of Birth | 12th February 1992 |
| Birthplace | Karakoçan, Turkey |
| Height | 1.87m (6ft11.2in) |
| Position | Foward (ST) |
| Signed | 09 July 15 (Dundee Utd £1.5M) |
| Left | 30 Jun 2018 (free) |
| Squad No. | 7 |
| International | Turkey |
| Caps | – |
| Goals | – |
Biog
Ciftci arrived at Celtic under a dark cloud. He had been found guilty of ‘biting’ an opponent whilst at Dundee Utd at the end of the last season, and was soon given a six game ban with two suspended. Fair enough. There were plenty of Celtic supporters who were not happy with him coming, and they possibly numbered in the majority. Deila took the gamble, and Ciftci arrived at Celtic at a time when the first team can be said to have been amassing a subset of colourful characters (e.g. Leigh Griffiths, Logan Bailly and Tony Stokes).
Still, on-field he was to win the support from the Celtic supporters once he had signed the contracts, but he had better not make the same mistakes at Celtic. Ex-Celt Chris Sutton was a hard man to please but he had publicly stated early on his confidence Ciftci could make an impact, so that boded well.
His appearances in the first team didn’t reflect the confidence that the support had in him. Despite a few good appearances, including scoring the winning goal away to Motherwell, he struggled to make his mark in the first team.
Celtic were crying out for a back-up striker or partner to Leigh Griffiths, whom the first team were over-relying on. Ciftci was clearly not that man, and despite numerous chances over the first half of the 2015/16 season, it was proving beyond him.
A notable back to back set of matches was in December 2015, when drafted into the side for the dead rubber match v Fernerbahce away, he was (despite his good work rate on the day) out of his depth, and partly responsible for the counterattack that led to a conceded goal in a 1-1 draw.
After the unsurprising barracking he received online, he scored twice in a 3-0 win over St Johnstone in a fine personal performance which finally won him some deserved praise from the support. He needed that timely boost but it wasn’t to be enough.
He was loaned out to Eskisehirspor (Turkey) in January 2016 to give him a chance to re-boot his career, but it wasn’t successful.
On his return, he incredibly found himself to write a little footnote in Celtic history by scoring the first goal by a Celtic player under the new Brendan Rodgers’ regime. Not many would have backed the odds on that one, but it was a fine goal. He managed to play in Rodger’s competitive debut match, the comical 1-0 defeat to Lincoln Red Imps of Gibralter which set him and others back. A laughable defeat but he still played in the return leg at home as Celtic won comfortably 3-0, but there was no indication he was to have a future at Celtic.
Moussa Dembele’s arrival and incredible form pushed Ciftci further down the queue, as did Sinclair also. Youngsters were going to be favoured for opportunities ahead of Ciftci.
He was sent on loan to Poland to Pogon Szczecin in February 2017, effectively ending his chances at Celtic. His spell at that club was poor with no goals in ten games, ending with an injury. Later sent to Plymouth Argyle on loan, and then to Motherwell where he found some success.
The Celtic first team was in fine form, winning the treble and undefeated domestically all season, and even Leigh Griffiths could struggle to get into the first team ahead of the excellent Dembele. It was best for Ciftci to look beyond Celtic.
In some ways in reflection, this was an odd signing. A competent but by no means outstanding striker at Dundee United who was never expected to be good enough for Celtic yet the club chased him, negotiated at length and paid over the odds. Immediately apparent he wasn’t up to the level that was required. It’s been seen before but usually with a player from a club abroad of lesser known quality.
The impasse was clearly not benefiting anyone (especially as he was to miss playing on loan for Motherwell v Celtic in the Scottish Cup final in 2018 due to an agreement), and it was best to cut losses all round to give him a fresh start with no shackles. He was freed on 30 June 2018 with one year left on his contract, which opened up a place in the squad as Rodgers was to freshen things up.
Sadly, he got to play only a token role for Celtic in the incredible back-to-back treble winning sides of 2016/17 & 2017/18 (spending most of that time away on loan), but he will have always that honour of having scored the goal that kicked off the whole Brendan Rodgers regime, a fine credit.
We wished him the best.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 2015-16 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 22 |
| Goals | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 2016-17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 12 |
1 |
2 |
11 |
26 |
| Goals | 4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League
Quotes
“Nadir has to speak with this feet and the same can be said about every player. We speak all the time. He knows we want him to work hard and he must always look to improve. We know he has the talent.”
Ronny Deila (Dec 2015)
Pictures
KDS
Articles
Deila defends Ciftci after Izaguirre training bust-up
By STEPHEN HALLIDAY
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/premiership/deila-defends-ciftci-after-izaguirre-training-bust-up-1-3929357
Published: 14:45 Tuesday 27 October 2015
Updated: 02:49 Wednesday 28 October 2015
CELTIC manager Ronny Deila insists he has no concerns over Nadir Ciftci’s temperament after the Turkish striker was involved in a training-ground altercation with Emilio Izaguirre following which the Honduran left-back was taken to hospital for treatment to an ear wound.
The Scottish champions’ preparations for tonight’s League Cup quarter-final against Hearts at Tynecastle were disrupted by the bust-up between Ciftci and Izaguirre at their Lennoxtown training centre yesterday morning.
Ciftci responded angrily to a tackle by Izaguirre, kicking out at his clubmate and catching him on the ear. Izaguirre had stitches inserted to repair the damage.
Deila, who did not witness the incident personally, spoke to both players afterwards and is content there is no lingering ill-will between them.
Ciftci arrived at Celtic in the summer from Dundee United in a £1.5 million move, bringing with him a reputation as one of the most hot-headed players in the Scottish Premiership.
The 23-year-old was booked 30 times and sent off once during his two seasons with United. He was also cited by the SFA Compliance Officer four times. He received a two-match ban for excessive misconduct for placing his hand onto the throat of assistant referee Gavin Harris during a League Cup tie against Inverness.
“Nadir is a very emotional guy and that’s fantastic. That’s why he’s a good footballer”
Ronny Deila
He then successfully challenged bans on two occasions, for allegedly striking Inverness defender Gary Warren and then for kicking Celtic captain Scott Brown. Both cases were found not proven by disciplinary tribunals.
His fourth case resulted in him being handed an eight-match suspension, two of them suspended, for biting the leg of Dundee player Jim McAlister in his final appearance for United at the end of last season. Consequently, he sat out Celtic’s first six league games of this season.
Ciftci has struggled to make an impact at the club so far, scoring just twice in 13 appearances, but Deila is satisfied with his conduct both on and off the pitch.
“Nadir is a very emotional guy and that’s fantastic,” said Deila. “That’s why he’s a good football player. A lot of players here have pride and commitment in the game and I think Nadir has really, really gotten better on the pitch, he works much harder and he’s been very disciplined on the pitch as well. I think he has gone in a very good direction since he came here.
“He has learned. At Celtic, there have not been any incidents on the pitch. He’s been very good and he learns a lot coming to a culture like this.
“He’s learning how to be a professional footballer – and I don’t mean he didn’t at Dundee United. But the culture here is so competitive and so challenging to get into the team and perform. We’re happy with how he is doing.
“He’s a handful because he’s very emotional but a lot of players are like this. But if they cause you problems, then they cause the opponent problems as well.
“For me, there’s not been a problem and he’s wanting to learn, but you need to speak and be close to him. Everyone needs to feel supported and be guided.
“I wasn’t there when the incident with Emilio happened, so I should have sent everybody else in here to talk to you about it! But what I am told happened was a tackle from Emilio in the boxes and then Nadir reacted to that tackle, he thought that was very hard and he tried to get away from it.
“And then he kicked back and he hits his face and he didn’t know that or see that, and he caught his ear. Emilio had to go to the hospital to get a couple of stitches to put it together. There was no purpose in hitting his face. Both are available for the game on Wednesday night.
“It was a tackle which was a little bit too much, then there was a reaction, but Nadir didn’t actually mean to kick him there. It was a bit unlucky but I talked with both players and they have moved on from it.
“It happens in training, the intensity is high. It’s too soon for me to say anything sure about it but it’s nothing big here and I talked to both players and we move on from it.”
Deila welcomes intensity in training but does not encourage the kind of full-blooded challenge which apparently caused Ciftci to react so furiously.
“I don’t want hard tackles in training,” added Deila. “Players should stay on their feet and we talk about that all the time for training.
“But you can stay on your feet and play with a 100 per cent intensity. I don’t want stupid tackles that you might see in a game – that’s to protect each other.
“I said that we have to protect each other but be intense. Sometimes you can’t control it and it gets too much.
“The first thing I said to players when I came here was that we train as we play. Of course we protect each other and things but we need to train at the intensity we have in games.
“When you have so many good players, as we have here, the intensity is sometimes better in training than it is in games because the ‘opponents’ you have here can be better than the ones you face in games. So that’s good. But when you are on the line all the time sometimes you can go a little bit over, like the small incident today.”
‘MY FATE TO FAIL AT CELTIC,’ CIFTCI
http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/my-fate-to-fail-at-celtic-ciftci/By CQN Magazine on 23rd August 2017 Latest News
CELTIC’S £1.5million misfit Nadir Ciftci believes it was his fate to FAIL at the champions.
The Turkish striker scored only four goals in 26 games after ex-boss Ronny Deila splashed the cash to sign him from Dundee United in July 2015.
Ciftci, who made only four substitute appearances following Brendan Rodgers’ arrival, has been offloaded to Plymouth on a season-long loan that will effectively take him to the end of his Parkhead contract.
But the 25-year-old misfiring frontman remained remarkably philosophical about his dramatic change in fortunes after agreeing the switch to the League One outfit.
He said: “This is a journey. It is destiny and I believe that.“It is meant to be how it is and you take it on the chin and go for it.
“Maybe everybody sees it as not working out for me, but it is experience and, in the past two years at Celtic, I had good times and made good friends.“It’s still been good, maybe not in the football way that I haven’t played many games, but I have experienced lovely people at the club.
“Celtic are a massive club and I have a lot of things to thank them for.”
Ciftci is looking forward to working alongside former Ross County manager Derek Adams at the Home Park side.
He added: “Talks had been going on a little while and I felt the will of him to bring me here and bring me back to the stage I am the best at.
“I felt wanted again.
“That was the most important feeling I had to have, wherever I was going, and the gaffer gave me that feeling throughout the period he was talking to my agent.
“It felt really comfortable, really good, straight away and I am happy to be here to work with him, for sure.”
Ciftci was also loaned to Turkish side Eskisehirspor and Polish outfit Pogon Szczcin in the past two seasons during his disastrous spell with the Glasgow giants.