The Celt at the final
Who would have thought that they were watching a potential World Cup finalist when Edson Braffheid threw his hand in the air to gift Aberdeen a penalty in the 4-4 horror draw in February?
That match summed up Tony Mowbray’s reign as Celtic manager as much as any with some breath-taking football and spectacular goals goals mixed with bizarre substitutions, disastrous defending and ultimately severe dejection.
At the heart of that was Braffheid with his swinging arm inviting a revival from an Aberdeen team that managed to lose twice at home to Hamilton Accies amongst other lowlights.
Five months later and the 27-year-old could be involved in the World Cup Final!
Amazingly, despite his loan spell being completed, the official FIFA website lists Braffheid as a Celtic player. Amongst the glittering names filling Bert van Marwijk’s squad is number 15 Edison Braffheid.
So far he has yet to be called onto the pitch alongside Wesley Sneider and Aarjen Robben but has been left on the bench with players such as Klaas Jan Huntelaar.
It’s hard to decide why it went so wrong for Braffheid, on paper he seemed a great find, bringing in a Dutch internationalist to a problem position, someone who had earned a £3m transfer to Bayern Munich in 2009.
Taking on the left-back gig that had previously been held by Danny Fox, Lee Naylor and Mo Camara shouldn’t have proved too daunting but how wrong could you be.
It’s difficult to recall a more ineffictve signing and harder still to explain how badly an internationalist could do in the SPL backwater.
As soon as Mowbray was sacked Neil Lennon moved to restore Naylor to the team and Braffheid was barely seen again in a Celtic strip.
The on-loan Bayern man was in the starting XI that lost 4-0 at St Mirren to seal Mowbray’s fate and had to wait over two months to return to the team and was fined for going AWOL after dropped from the substitutes bench in the disastrous Scottish Cup defeat from Ross County.
All the while Bayern Munich were battling their way past Manchester United and Lyon to the final of the Champions League.
Despite having had only half a season for Bayern the German champions have already decided that it’s time for their left-back to move on.
Bayern’s chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge admitted: “In principle we are ready to part company with Andreas Ottl, Jose Ernesto Sosa and Edson Braafheid.
“It would be extremely difficult for them to break through and get a first-team job at our club.”
The strange twists of fate could yet take another turn tomorrow if Germany beat Spain to book a final date with the Dutch.
Seven of the 23 man Dutch squad come from Bayern, who’d bet against the bold Edison playing a cameo role in the final and helping Holland to avenge the 1974 defeat against Franz Beckenbaur’s Germany to finally seal his departure from Bayern?
Follow Video Celts on Twitter