Quick. Technical. Strong. All adjectives that the Celtic support will be thrilled to hear being used to describe potential new recruit Michel-Ange Balikwisha. They may be less enthusiastic though when they hear he is widely considered, in Belgium at least, to be something of a work in progress.
The Celtic fans have had their fill of project signings, but according to a man who played against Balikwisha, and who also plied his trade here, the attacker looks suited to the rough and tumble of the Scottish Premiership, and should be able to make an immediate impact even as he continues to develop.
The Celtic support may remember Frederic Frans from his time in Scotland with Partick Thistle and Dundee United. The big defender ended up at Beerschot alongside a certain Lawrence Shankland and went up against Balikwisha when he emerged at Standard Liege, and later at Royal Antwerp.
Now a manager in his own right with Belgian third-tier side Sporting Hasselt, Frans keeps a keen eye on players throughout his homeland, and he has been impressed on the whole by what he has seen from 23-year-old Balikwisha.
“He gave us a few problems when I played against him”, Frans said.
“He’s the type of player who, on his day, can be amazing. But Celtic are buying someone with a lot of potential rather than the finished product.
“Antwerp bought him for quite a big fee. I remember that Club Brugge wanted him, but a few years ago Antwerp had big money, even though they were still the smaller club. The owner wanted to compete with Brugge, so they spent that money on Balikwisha to steal him away from Brugge as much as to add him to their team, and everyone knew that.
“To be honest though, he’s a good player, even though there was a bit of flexing of the financial muscle going on from the Antwerp owner.
“He has quite a long, skinny body when you look at him, but is really strong and fast. He has a lot of the qualities you need, with his speed, the dribbling, the technique, and physically he’s pretty decent as well.
“He’s quick, he’s technical, he’s a good player. I don’t think you necessarily have to be too physical to play in Scotland, because you look at players like Kyogo Furuhashi playing for Celtic, and he does really well.
“He is fast, and he is really strong in every aspect of his game, and he should really suit a fast-paced game like it is over in Scotland.
“I think he will do well. I wouldn’t say he was one of the top, top players in Belgium, but he is a very decent player in Belgium.
“I think he could play in any league really. He’s a young boy, and he’s got everything you need to go on and be even better.”
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has spoken this week of his desire to bring in two strikers to complement Kyogo, but Frans doesn’t think that Balikwisha would necessarily be earmarked to fill one of those positions in the Celtic squad.
“He’s more of a winger,” he said.
“I would put him more on the side to be honest than in the striker position.
“His scoring record is pretty good when you consider that, it’s close to one in four games. He’s only 23 and he’s played something like 160 games, and it feels as though he has been around for a long time. That’s a good number of games for a young guy at just 23, and for big teams as well.
“He’s different to James Forrest, but maybe a little bit more similar to Scott Sinclair. I think Sinclair was probably cutting inside more, so it’s not a perfect comparison, but it is a lot closer.
“He’s a decent finisher. I wouldn’t say he was a natural goalscorer, but he isn’t someone who misses a crazy number of chances either.
“I would say he is a little bit more of a provider, but he likes to take on a man and he has a decent cross on him as well.
“So, I don’t see him as a striker, if I’m honest, but he’s a well-recognised player in the league.
“I like him, he’s a good player.”
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Balikwisha was part of the Antwerp side who won the Belgian title for the first time in 66 years the season before last, and scored against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League group stages. Frans believes then that he will be well accustomed to operating under the sort of intense expectations he will experience if he does finalise a move to Celtic.
“I think he will be able to handle that,” he said.
“Antwerp have become really big over the past few years, and they have been on a crazy ride.
“They made it to the Champions League, winning the league in the last minute a couple of years ago through Toby Alderweireld, so I think he can handle pressure.
“The Celtic and Rangers environment will be another step up from what he has experienced before, that can even be hard for guys coming from England though.
“He has had the pressure of playing for a top club, so I think he can handle it.”
Balikwisha has been capped at every level for Belgium up to and including the under-21 side, but has yet to make the leap to the senior squad. Something that Frans believes may happen in the future.
“I think so, but the only problem for him will be the competition in his spot,” he said.
“We have Johan Bakayoko, Leandro Trossard, Dodi Lukebakio and all of these guys in bigger clubs.
“He is probably on the shortlist, but not super close either. I don’t know if a move to Celtic will help him with that.
“Obviously Celtic are a bigger club than Antwerp, but with the league and everything, I don’t know if they rate it as highly.
“If he does well there though I wouldn’t be surprised to see him coming into the national team.”
