THE path to Scotland this week for Nikita Haikin has taken in the high road, the low road, and everything in-between. The man who will line up between the sticks for Bodo/Glimt in Glasgow on Thursday night has seen just about everything in football, which is probably why he feels ready for whatever Celtic Park holds for him.

The Russian goalkeeper admits that even he hadn’t heard of Glimt - hitherto minnows of Norwegian football - before being offered a trial there three years ago, a chance he took in order to salvage a career that had once promised so much as a youth at Chelsea, but seemed to be fizzling out after being rejected by Bradford City and Stevenage Town.

To say the move has worked out for the now 26-year-old is something of an understatement. Back-to-back league titles, a spanking 6-1 win over Roma that shook European football, playing against AC Milan in the San Siro, and now a chance to taste a European night in front of 60,000 fans at Celtic Park.

It is little wonder then that he sees the week ahead as an experience to be savoured, rather than an occasion to be feared.

“We feel great,” Haikin said. “We are looking ahead to a big game against Celtic.

“Celtic is a very well-known team and I was personally very happy to get them. It was one of the teams I really wanted to play against.

“Unfortunately I haven’t been to Celtic Park or Scotland, so it will be a great opportunity for me to see what Scottish football is like and really see the culture.

“I’ve heard a lot about Celtic Park and have watched the derbies against Rangers. I watched some of the most recent derby. It was a decent performance, they’re a good team.

“They’re the best team in Scotland along with Rangers, and all you can say is that the atmosphere was awesome. I’m looking forward to playing there.

“You see the fans and what it means to them.”

These nights also mean so much to Haikin, given how close he came to throwing in the towel altogether just a few years ago.

“It was a difficult time [when I didn’t have a club], but it only made me stronger,” he said.

“I just had to grind a lot and I was looking for an opportunity where someone would believe in me.

“Looking back now, it is what made me who I am today, and now I appreciate what I’m doing now every day even more because I know what it’s like to be without a club, be unemployed.

“Here I am now doing quite well, and I hope that can continue.

“I hadn’t heard of the team [before I went there], and at that point in my career I didn’t really care where I was going, I was just looking for an opportunity to go and play with someone that would appreciate me and value my skillset.

“I went on trial, but I had no high hopes, because I had been rejected so many times in the past. A couple of days after it was over I got the call to say they wanted to sign me on a one-year deal.

“The rest is history. This will be my fourth season here now and it’s been quite the journey. Everything has surpassed my expectations. The location, the culture, Norway itself and of course the club.

“When I joined we hadn’t had much success at all. That was the first season we had finished second, but that gave us the momentum. Everyone in the community was shocked by us winning silverware, then we won it two times in a row.

“We had the games against Roma, Milan, the European experience was new to all of us, but it has made us a lot better as individuals and as a team.

“As an organisation it’s just been beautiful.”

How exactly did a team of such modest history and resource emerge from the shadows then to outshine the traditional powerhouses of Norwegian football like Rosenborg and Molde?

“It’s probably the question I am asked most often, and it’s hard for me to answer and point out one specific thing that really works for us,” Haikin said.

“We’re a hard-working team and we’re humble. We don’t focus on results, we only focus on the performance and we believe that is what brings success.”

Words that could have been uttered by Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou himself. With Glimt adopting a similar attacking philosophy under their own manager Kjetil Knutsen to the one brought to Glasgow by the Australian, the tie promises to be a cracker.

There are a couple of factors that have been cited as working in Celtic’s favour though.

Glimt have been in Spain recently attempting to sharpen up, given their last competitive match was on December 12th last year. They have also lost several key players from last season’s Eliteserien winning squad, including striker Runar Hauge to Hibernian. Haikin is unconcerned though.

“It’s not the first season we’ve lost players,” he said. “We lost some vital players that were determined and very loyal to the club for years.

“But that’s life. It makes sense for them to go if they are looking for a new challenge.

“The way I see it, people come, people go. Even last year, we lost our entire front three, who had scored 100 goals between them. It only made us stronger, because someone else got a chance and they bring something else to the game.

“That’s the beauty of it, and to us it is normal.

“We played games in Spain to test our abilities and how ready we are, so it will be interesting to see how we are going to react to another challenge like this.”

On a personal level, Haikin admits that as much as he is enjoying his fairytale in Norway, he may look to write the next chapter of his career back where it all began for him; in British football.

“That’s my goal,” he said. “It’s possible.

“I’m happy where I am now though and let’s see what the future holds.

“I really miss English football and the culture. I can relate to it, and having experienced it I know how it tastes.

“I think it’s normal, the majority of players around the world I would say are aiming to get to English football, or British football.

“It’s not in my hands or in my control. I just want to do my best here, give 100 percent and see where it is going to take me.

“That’s the beauty of it, you never know.”

As Glimt have shown, 'aint that the truth.