Elena Sadiku’s confidence rides on the right side of arrogance.
At the risk of sounding condescending, it’s refreshing. Because while assuredness and, indeed, egotism are hardly in scant supply in men’s football, these traits aren’t always universal in the Scottish women’s game.
When Sadiku arrived in Glasgow part-way through last season, she identified this herself first-hand, and then immediately set about adjusting expectations and ridding the dressing room of any lingering self-deprecatory notions.
“Celtic should never be underdogs,” she said.
At face value, it’s as simple as that for the manager. It’s this message that underpins everything she wants her team to stand for, both on and off the pitch, and it’s the mantra through which success is achieved.
Last term, that took the form of the Celtic FC Women’s side winning the Scottish Women’s Premier League championship for the first time in their history.
The new SWPL campaign kicks off on Saturday, and with Celtic now set to enjoy their first-ever flag day before taking on Dundee United at Celtic Park, Sadiku reckons they’re only just getting started.
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Of Swedish nationality, Sadiku joins a rich lineage of Scandinavian Celtic history-makers, not least the peerless Henrik Larsson.
The King of Kings, as he was affectionately known by the Paradise faithful, spent seven good years at Parkhead, serving under four managers, making 315 appearances, winning eight trophies and scoring 242 goals.
Of those myriad times he hit the net, his exquisite lofted chip over Stefan Klos during his side’s thrilling 6-2 derby win over Rangers at the turn of the millennium is widely considered his best in green and white.
At six years old when that legendary encounter unfolded on a sunny afternoon in Glasgow’s east end in the year 2000, Sadiku had no idea she’d one day follow in the footsteps of such an iconic player and countryman.
She did, however, already have a love of football. She adored kicking a ball around in her garden, running rings around her brother at the local park, and revelling in the unwavering adulation she received from her father in doing so.
Born in the north-west German city of Bocholt to Kosovar-Albanian parents, Sadiku moved to Sweden in childhood unable to speak the language. She in turn struggled to make friends, and admits feeling lonely through spells of her formative years.
“I came from a pretty hard background,” she said. “We moved a lot, we [were] escaping difficult situations. It made me feel like football was my safe place.
“Football was where I could be myself and not think about my problems. It made me feel like nothing could beat me there or hurt me. And that made me fall in love with the sport even more.”
A natural aptitude drove that passion deeper, quickly shifting Sadiku’s focus from inspired hobbyist to football as a prospective career path.
Money was never a driving factor, she admits (despite turning professional at 16, Sadiku wouldn’t be paid properly until turning 20 in 2013), but once she was old enough to comprehend the labour market, or at least conceive of life after education, she was adamant that her place belonged in football – so strong was her love of the game.
With committed, supportive parents who sacrificed so much of their own lives shuttling their daughter to and from training and match days, the sky was the limit for a player who sometimes had to be literally dragged off the pitch.
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After blazing a trail through the LdB Malmo youth set-up (now FC Rosengard), Sadiku graduated to the coastal city club’s first-team in 2010, first as a striker before evolving into a silverware-winning, free-flowing and aggressive box-to-box midfielder.
By 2011, she was a regular in the Sweden Under-19s national team, and spent the next few years growing as a player in skill and stature in the Damallsvenskan – Swedish women’s football’s premier division – eventually swapping Malmo for Kristianstad in 2012 and then Eskilstuna United in 2014.
In the season following what she describes as her best to date by that point, Sadiku suffered a serious ACL knee injury that would not only change the course of her career but also her life.
Unable to carry on as before, she spent a year on the sidelines, scoring a hat-trick on her return before re-injuring the same knee with the same severity.
In the next four years, Sadiku endured 12 surgeries and was told more than once that she’d never play football again.
Eskilstuna extended her contract twice while she underwent extensive rehabilitation, and she maintained the same determination that had carried her through her career while leaning on the unflinching, omnipresent familial support she received off the pitch more than ever before.
“My parents were always there when I needed them,” Sadiku said. “I was never pushed by my parents. It was always me that was driven about how much I wanted it, how much I wanted to succeed in football.
“The only time they actually tried to take away football for me was when they saw how much I got hurt from my injuries.”
Sadiku openly admits her mental health suffered greatly during this time, and while a move to Hammarby followed in 2017, after just six games aged just 24, she called time on her playing career once and for all.
Seven years on, 10 since that first ACL injury, Sadiku has no regrets. She moved almost immediately into coaching, transferring her signature enthusiasm into tactical analysis as an assistant coach for Beijing BG Phoenix, Rosengard and Fortuna Hjorring.
She returned to Eskilstuna United as manager in 2021, and then moved to England to take control of the Everton women’s Under-21s. When former manager Fran Alonso departed Celtic in the days before Christmas last year, Sadiku was appointed as the Celtic FC Women’s head coach just a few weeks later.
“How do I reflect on my injury now? It was probably the best thing that could ever happen to me when it comes to facing setbacks,” Sadiku said. “It made me who I am today.
“I don’t think many people can say that. I’m very confident, I can have this approach of being cocky or whatever you want to call it, but I think because I’ve struggled so much in my life, I now know how strong I am mentally.
“I know how confident I am in myself, that I can achieve whatever I want to achieve – and I can help others achieve whatever they want to achieve too.
“That’s the best bit for me. When I was younger, I was a pretty good player. I wanted to be as successful as possible, and then my injury prevented me from fulfilling my potential. I still want to be as successful as possible, and I still get to live my dream of doing what I love most and that’s football.
“There were points where I asked myself: Am I going to lose my leg? Am I going to lose my life? That was just terrifying.
“Now I’m doing something that I love even more than playing, because I can affect so many other players, helping them to achieve their dreams. That’s the best thing ever. But I also hope it can show that even if you stop playing, football doesn’t end there.”
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All of this is manifested in Sadiku’s approach to management, on a collective and individual basis.
Unprompted, she admits she’d love to know how her players describe her style when she’s not in the room, but stresses her hardline approach to goal-setting and dream-chasing is a byproduct of her own darkest days.
She added: “I can be very hard on them so they don’t miss out on how good they can be. Because when I think about how bad I was feeling when I had to stop… I never wish something like that for my players. Never.
“You never want to question how good you could have been if I only did this or that, right? So my job is to make sure they can be the best they can be, to manage the load and manage everything around their lives, and to make it as easy as possible to make them successful on the pitch.”
The latter sentiment came into sharp focus in the final minute of the final day of the 2023/24 campaign, when Amy Gallacher scored in the dying seconds against Hibernian at Parkhead to clinch Celtic’s first-ever SWPL championship.
Wearing the No.7 jersey (the same number worn by Larsson all those years ago), Gallacher thereafter paid tribute to her great grandfather Patsy who played for the men’s team during the first half of the 20th century.
The so-called ‘fairy-tale’ element once attached to Celtic by its legendary captain Billy McNeil has been said to the point of cliche at this point, but Gallacher’s achievement etched her name into the club’s storied history books all the same.
For Sadiku, it’s this that epitomises success. Winning trophies is great, of course, but it’s telling stories, changing narratives and making history that has always driven her towards the next goal. In essence, hitting these loftier targets means winning games of football and, in turn, clinching silverware will follow as a matter of course.
“This is Celtic, winning trophies is important,” Sadiku said. “But it’s not just about winning cups, it’s more about how we behave, how we play, how dominant we are. I want to change the mindset.
“Because the mindset was not dominating before, it was more underdog and Celtic should never be underdogs. For me, it was more about understanding our strategy, our vision; where we have been and where we want to go in the long-term. We’ve won the league, it’s the first time ever, but I want more.
“I want us to create our own story. Celtic is a club rich in history with a long lineage of success, on the men’s side. We don’t have almost-150 years of history, we have since 2007 and only four years of being full-time professionals.
“We’re not there, not yet. We’re seeing players now signing for two, sometimes three years because they’re confident they can succeed and be happy here. That wasn’t always the case before.
“This is the start of something new and I want to build a solid foundation which is going to make us more and more successful in years to come.”
Success for Sadiku clearly comes in many forms.
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On the domestic front, today marks the beginning of Celtic’s title defence. With a number of new faces having joined Sadiku’s ranks during the transfer window, the Swede has recruited shrewdly, and she targets European progression when Celtic play their first UEFA Women’s Champions League tie against Finnish outfit Kuopion Palloseura on September 4.
When these big games roll around, Sadiku hopes crowd numbers continue to grow home and away in support of her side.
“We had 8,000 or thereabouts for the final game last season at Celtic Park, and the support was incredible,” Sadiku said. “I’ve heard people say there’s a different kind of togetherness at our games, and that’s great.
“But obviously I would love to play at Celtic Park and it’s 60,000, or even 30,000. If teams like Arsenal can do it, then why not? It might take time, but I don’t think it’s impossible. That’s the next dream.”
Given Elena Sadiku’s exceptional path through life and football so far, you wouldn’t bet against her realising it before too long.
