FOOTBALL fans of a certain vintage get dewy-eyed about the very idea of the tanner ba’ player. The demise of this mythical little showman, his craft honed by long hours playing with a cheap, sixpence ball whilst dodging cars on the mean streets of the city, is regularly said to be crucial to our demise as a football nation of relevance.

But in the form of Daniel Arzani, Celtic feel they have found one. Even if the streets in question were those of the Iranian cities of Doruz and Ahvaz, and they had to search on the other side of the world to find him.

While in one sense the 19-year-old, who completed his two-year loan to the club from Manchester City yesterday – having joined the Mancunian giants this summer from feeder club Melbourne City this summer - follows in the footsteps of Scott McDonald and Tom Rogic as Aussie arrivals at Parkhead, his Iranian heritage is something he takes seriously indeed. He was born in Iran, spent the first six years of his life there, returning periodically, and says with a smile that 95% of his family remain resident there. If things go well there, he may soon have to start up a Celtic supporters’ club there too.

“I was born in Iran but my parents took my brother and I to Australia for a better life when I was six years old,” says Arzani. “Then we moved back for a year when I was 10 because my grandmother was ill and we had to take care of her.

“I learned the game by playing street football in Iran,” he added. “I have really fond memories of that.

“A football is non-existent out there. Nobody had a football. They’re very rare there. So everyone used to make those plastic balls. You could just buy them from the corner shop. You’d buy eight, rip them up, put them on each other, layer them up and just play. They were small, plastic balloons which were very light so we would burst them and then layer seven or eight of them together and wrap them in electric tape.

“It killed your feet because they were like rocks. We’d put bricks down for goalposts and then move them whenever a car came. But it improved my touch and toughened me up because there were some big boys in those games and nobody was bothered about hurting you.

“But that made me the player I am today, playing against bigger opponents. We’d just wake up in the morning, have our breakfast and then go straight out to play. You’d get a knock on the door and that would be it.”

The fruits of this labour will soon be seen in front of 60,000 crowds at Celtic Park – even if there will be no chance to grace the Champions League this season. But these talents have already taken this Australian a long way in the game. As part of the Australian squad for the World Cup in Russia this summer, he was the youngest player in attendance, making appearances as an impact substitute in all three games, including an outing against eventual champions France. While everything regarding his transfer business was kept on the down low until the World Cup was over, Tom Rogic helped sell him on the move to Scotland.

“Tom [Rogic] is a close friend of mine so the first thing I did when this came up was get on the phone to him and he had nothing but good things to say about the club,” says Arzani. “In fact, he pointed out that if it wasn’t a great place to be at he wouldn’t have signed his new deal and that was good enough for me.

“In fact Tom and I spoke about the club a lot during the World Cup and I said: ‘I’m coming to play for Celtic!’ but I was just taking the piss because I had no idea then that this was in the pipeline. So it’s crazy the way it’s all worked out since then – I predicted it but unknowingly.”

As for the reason Arzani will wear the No 14 jersey at Celtic Park, it has something to do with another Aussie legend who has had a major influence on his career, Tim Cahill. “From day one when I was at [Melbourne] City and I was just a young 17-year-old, he had just signed there and he was the top dog but he looked after me,” says Arzani. “I always really liked No 17 and when I went to Melbourne initially I had 17 but when Timmy came into the squad, he bullied me and asked if he could have 17 and I was just a young boy and couldn’t say no to him,” he added. “So they asked what I wanted and I took 14 instead and it grew on me as a number. I’m a massive fan of Thierry Henry, especially when he was at Arsenal, and Johan Cruyff. A lot of great players have worn that number and it kind of appealed to me.”

While he is at his best playing off the left in a front three, rather than off the right, Chris Davies sees something of Patrick Roberts in Arzani in his love of a one to one duel with the defender and uncanny knack of ending up on top. “Often teams had to go one versus two against Patrick as he’d always beat the first man and someone had to cover,” said Davies, who also revealed Odsonne Edouard is unlikely to return from his recent knock in time for Thurds first leg against Suduva. “But that would open up space elsewhere which was great. He’s not ready to go straight in as he not quite up to speed yet.”

One of the lesser known facts about Arzani is the fact that he likes to spend his spare time reading fantasy novels. A tanner ba’ player, if Arzani makes good on his undoubted promise he could quickly become every Celtic supporter’s fantasy signing.