WHO are we talking about? Edson Braafheid of course, remember him? We’re grateful to JoeBloggsCity and The Celtic Wiki for the memory jog on this one.
Like Jeremy Toljan easier this year, Braafheid arrived at Celtic on loan from a Bundesliga side. Toljan was loaned to us by Dortmund and he borrowed Braafheid from Bayern Munich yet nether player set the heather on fire wearing the Hoops.
The Dutch international left-back Braafheid signed on loan on 1 February 2010 on a day when there was a flurry of players arriving.
Louis van Gaal had signed Braafheid for Bayern Munich but he appeared to be a little lightweight. I remember thinking when he played for Celtic that he had the skinniest legs I’d ever seen. He only managed a handful of games for the German giants and it looked like he’d be loaned back to Holland. However neither Ajax or his old club PSV Eindhoven were able to complete the deal and he ended up signing for Celtic.
Celtic win 4-2 at Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup
He made his debut in a 4-2 Scottish Cup win away to Dunfermline on 7 February 2010 and was credited with a couple of assists, picking up a Man of the Match award in the bargain. Rather bizarrely Celtic had managed to misspell the player’s name in the back of his shirt.
That though was the high-water mark for the Dutchman in a Celtic shirt. He seemed to be decent enough in an attacking role but was woefully short in the crucial defensive duties. Celtic were winning 4-2 up at Pittodrie in the latter stages of the game when Braafheid needlessly handed the ball inside the area to gift the Dons a way back into the game. That match finished up as a 4-4 draw and by now the Celtic support were thinking along similar lines to the the way that Toljan was regarded as his time at Celtic faded out towards the end of last season.
Celtic throw away a 4-2 lead to draw 4-4 at Pittodrie
By the time the Tony Mowbray shambles finally came to an end after a humiliating 4-0 loss at St Mirren and for those of us who were there, St Mirren were unlucky to get only 4 and Celtic were lucky to get nil. It was a complete shambles of a performance, as unprofessional as anything I had ever seen or seen since from a Celtic side.
Neil Lennon came in and we didn’t see the Dutchman again until the last game of the season when he scored a cracker direct from an indirect free-kick. That was the last of his eleven games for Celtic.
After leaving Celtic he joined up with the Dutch squad for the 2010 World Cup and actually came off the bench in the extra-time played in the Final itself. Spain won 1-0 but as a former Celtic man he is the only player to have played for our club to have appeared in a World Cup Final.
No-one saw that one coming when St Mirren were beating Celtic 4-0!
After his time at Celtic came to an end, Braafheid signed for 1899 Hoffenheim, before going out on loan again this time to FC Twente. He then managed to get a move to Lazio before going back to the Netherlands to play for Utrecht and ended up playing in the MLS in the States.
So there you have it, the player who played for both Celtic and Thursday night’s Europa League opponents Lazio and also played for Holland in a World Cup Final against Spain. We give you former Celt, Edson Braafheid! And his legs were too skinny!