LIKE a lot of kids, Hatem Abd Elhamed had a football with him wherever he went almost as soon as he’d learned to walk.

Unlike most likely every one of his new team-mates at Celtic, he literally had nowhere to play an actual game.

No five-asides. Not even a two against one. And as for a proper eleven v eleven, that was impossible.

Brought up in a tiny village in northern Israel, Elhamed had no pitch, not even a team to join, nor goals or even so much as spare piece of grass on which to show off his skills to his friends or anyone who happened to be watching.

Being a professional footballer, a dream even back then for lad who could play a bit was as far away as it’s possible to be.

There aren’t many scouts wandering the back streets of a tiny Arab-Israeli village hoping to see something special in a kid kicking a ball against wall.

“I come from a small village called Kafr Manda,” explained Elhamed, an articulate man whose size suggests rather strongly that he is not someone to mess with.

“Most players start with clubs at six or seven. I didn’t have that chance. My village is so small that there is no football club I could have joined, and the other clubs were too far away. There was no chance for me to go there.

“But then one day, at 16, my father was able to take me to another town to join a team. That’s when I started and I then started playing football properly at a club Bnei Sakhnin .

“There was nothing before, just playing in the village with my friends.

“I don’t know what I would have done had I not became a player. I never thought about anything else.

“I’ve loved football since I was four. I can remember always having a ball with me, it was just that I had nowhere to go and play. Football was my life then. It still is.

“It was 12 years ago when I properly started, I had many difficult moments, and I’m proud of what I have done.”

And so he should be. Even when Elhamed was picked up by Maccabi Tel Aviv, things were hardly straightforward.

He jumped about between clubs for years, joined Gent in Belgium which didn’t work out, was made into a defender from a striker of great promise and, of course, there was the awful death of his brother, which he spoke well about yesterday and in a manner I would not have been able to.

Celtic’s new player is not someone who has had everything handed on a plate to him. It’s why a proud man spoke to the media yesterday. It’s why we all came away thinking that we’d met someone of good character.

Elhamed had to wait for his big chance. Now it has come, he’s not going to give anything other than his all.

“I have known about Celtic being interested in me for about a month and a half,” revealed Elhamed. “My agent told me about it and since then I did everything I did to come here.

“I was in Belgium about five years ago. Sometimes you go to a country and things don’t go well from the start. I didn’t get a chance to show what I could do. I played one game and after that I didn’t play. The fact I am here at Celtic tells you that I learned from that experience.

“I wanted this so much. I played for the past few years in the Israeli league and did my best to get another chance to play in Europe – but this isn’t not normal Europe, this is Celtic. It is one of the biggest clubs in the world and I’m so, so happy to be part of Celtic.

“This club is very famous. The games are always on live in Israel and, of course, I know the history of the Israeli players here like me friends Nir Bitton and Beram Kayal. I spoke with both them, they gave me some fantastic advice about the club, the people and in the end it was an easy decision.

“I am going to wear the 33 jersey, the same as Beram. He asked me yesterday why, and I told him that I hoped it would make me as good as him. I hope it brings me good luck.

“Both Nir and Beram told me Celtic is a fantastic club, that it’s like a family here and I will feel that from the first training session.”

There has been some debate among Celtic supporters about where Elhamed plays as he’s been a centre-back with Hapoel Be’er Sheva of late when the team really could do with a direct replacement for Mikael Lustig.

“I used to play a lot as right-back, for many, many games, and my last coach decided to play me at centre-half which I did,” he explained. “If you say to me ‘play this position or that position’ I will always try my best. My position, however, is right-back.

“I played only four or five games at centre-back over the last few months but I played right-back a lot before that.

“I think I’m versatile. I can do many things. I’m fast, good with the ball, comfortable in possession and good in defence. I give my best in everything I do, 100 per cent, in every game and training session. I will show this on the field in my first game.”