Up And Hatem

Hoops new Bhoy Hatem Abd Elhamed can’t wait to make history at Scottish football’s quintessential history-makers

- Joe Donnelly

FROM Nir Bitton to Beram Kayal and Eyal Berkovic, Glasgow’s green and white have a recent lineage of Israeli Celts. Hatem Abd Elhamed now joins the Paradise ranks with a clear raison d’etre – to impress, to win trophies, and to make history at the biggest club in Scotland.

A domestic champion in his home country, the 28-year-old defender knows what it means to play under pressure, to secure silverware and to perform in front of a passionate fanbase, and he wants to continue on that pathway with Neil Lennon and his new Treble Treble-winning colleagues.

Hapoel Be’er Sheva, Elhamed’s previous club, played Celtic in the play-off round of the 2016 UEFA Champions League. There, the Hoops overcame the competition 5-4 on aggregate in a closely-contested tie. Nevertheless, Elhamed retrospectively explained that friends at his previous club were overawed by the typically rapturous home crowd during the first leg.

“Once my friends at Be’er Sheva heard that I was signing for Celtic, they told me the atmosphere at Celtic Park on European nights is amazing,” Elhamed said in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View. “They played here in 2016 in a Champions League qualifier, and they said that they were shaking in the first 20 minutes.

“When I visited Celtic Park during the Nomme Kalju first-leg, it was so exciting for me. To have the chance to see the supporters and the atmosphere up close was amazing, and now I can’t wait to have that experience as a player.”