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Scottish Cup final countdown: Nadir Ciftci hoping to emulate former Celtic striker

Nadir Ciftci would love to emulate the cup-winning achievements of Pierre Van Hooijdonk, who tasted final glory with Celtic in 1995.
Nadir Ciftci would love to emulate the cup-winning achievements of Pierre Van Hooijdonk, who tasted final glory with Celtic in 1995.

Nadir Ciftci would love to match the achievement of his agent Pierre van Hooijdonk by scoring the winner in a Scottish Cup final.

Van Hooijdonk nodded home the goal that clinched the cup for Celtic against Airdrie at Hampden in 1995.

Ciftci himself was only three-years-old at the time but the memory of that ninth-minute nod into the net off a Tosh McKinlay cross will still be fresh for many Hoops fans as it brought to an end a six-year trophy drought for the Parkhead side.

Ciftci said: “Maybe I can get a crucial goal this time and Pierre can celebrate that one. He has helped me out with a lot of things in my life overall, not just in my career, so it would nice to do that.

“He always calls me after games to ask how it went and how I thought I played.”

The link between the Turk and the Dutchman goes back to when Van Hooijdonk was assistant boss to then Turkish national manager Guus Hiddink.

Ciftci was an up-and-coming player at Portsmouth and was given a call-up to the squad only for a passport mix-up to scupper his hopes.

The pair got on great from then on and when the frontman moved back to play for Breda in Holland after a spell in his homeland with Kayserispor, they formed a business partnership.

Ciftic said: “I had another agent when I went to Portsmouth and then left there to go to Turkey. When I came back to Holland with Breda I got a call from Pierre asking me what I was doing and what my plans were.

“I had known him from the time when I got called into the Turkey squad during my Portsmouth days. He was the assistant boss to Hiddink at the time.

“I got to know him well and we had the club in common because I was there playing and Pierre has been a Breda fan all his life.

“He even let me and my dad stay with him in his house for a time, which was very kind.

“Last year in Holland I did not have the best season of my career so I was looking for a new move. I was keen to come back to the UK and Pierre asked me about Dundee United and Scotland.

“He said he knew the manager Jackie McNamara from their time together as players at Celtic. Pierre explained to me about the gaffer, what kind of person he was, and he has turned out be just as he said.

“I told him I was up for the challenge of coming here to Scotland and the rest is history.”

Ciftci has arguably been the star of United’s march to the final.

He scored the winner against St Mirren back in February then banged in a double when the Tangerines hammered Inverness Caley Thistle 5-0 on their own ground in the quarter-final.

Also, the memory of the Turk celebrating before he had actually banged in United’s third at Ibrox in the semi will linger for a long time.

So is he confident his team can bring silverware back from the east end of Glasgow?

Ciftci declared: “If we perform to our strengths then I don’t think there is any team in Scotland that can stop us.”