Long road to European football will be worth the trek for Van Zanten

FOR David Van Zanten, Hibs' sole signing of the summer so far, the opportunity to play European football in tomorrow's Intertoto Cup encounter with Swedes Elfsborg represents vindication of his career path since being told he was no longer wanted by Celtic.

His release from Parkhead, only four years after arriving from Dublin side Tolka Rovers believing he had already "made it" as a 17-year-old, came as a hammer blow. It was the kind of setback that so many fail to recover from. But the defender of Irish and Dutch parentage refused to give up on his dreams of establishing himself in the professional ranks and that fortitude has paid off.

A trial and then a contract was secured with St Mirren, where he played with Mixu Paatelainen, and fears he may end up amongst the hordes of also-rans and drop-outs were soon dismissed. After five years at Love Street, he believes his career is now on an upward spiral once more.

"It was obviously very hard when I left Celtic," he said yesterday as he prepared to make his debut against Elfsborg. "I have seen players leave with me and before me that are totally out of football now.

"It was a challenge for me but once I left it gave me the boot up the backside I needed, a touch of reality. I took my chance at St Mirren but, to this day, I still consider myself very fortunate to still be playing, and at the level I'm playing at now I feel very lucky. I probably thought I had made it at Celtic, that when I moved over at 17 that was me, I had made the grade. But I didn't, quite obviously. I was always determined that I was going to get a club but there was always the worry that I might not play again.

"Going to St Mirren was the challenge I needed. I definitely wanted to succeed there, and I think I did it.

"I'm delighted I've now been rewarded with this move. It's obvious it's a great move for me. The fan base, the stadium, the training ground, it's a step up and I'm absolutely delighted with that."

Van Zanten has been handed a tough introduction to his Hibs career, with the usually-strenuous pre-season training having been taken up a notch because of the early return to competitive football only six weeks after the climax of last season's SPL.

However, the 26-year-old insists the opportunity to play European football for the first time, and the carrot of passage to the Uefa Cup qualifiers should the Easter Road side manage to get through two rounds of the Intertoto Cup, is enough to ease the aches and pains.

"There's a massive incentive," he added. "Look at Aberdeen last season, playing Bayern Munich and some top teams.

"Sitting watching, you want to be involved in games like that. We've got the chance to maybe get involved in the UEFA Cup, so we want to take the opportunity if we can."

Manager Mixu Paatelainen has been at pains to stress that his team will be far from their best, having completed only two weeks of training and not yet played any matches. Facing a side who are currently second top of the Swedish Allsvenskan top-flight, having lost only one match and three goals in their opening 12 outings, makes the tie as difficult as it could be in the competition.

Paatelainen watched Elfsborg impressively defeat Djurgarden 2-0 on Wednesday night, with goals from former Southampton midfielder Anders Svensson and fellow Sweden internationalist Stefan Ishizaki, but he has not dismissed his side's chances.

"You normally try things in pre-season games," said Paatelainen, who will be without Moroccan pair Merouane Zemmama and Abdessalam Benjelloun because of injury and rest, respectively. "You don't play for results, you play for the performance.

"But now, obviously, this is competitive and we will play for the result, it's as simple as that. We want to go through, there's no question about that."

He added: "This is probably as hard as it could have been. Elfsborg are an excellent team. They are well- organised, very disciplined, they defend fantastically well and they have very good players up front, who are dangerous and can score against anybody.

"We will have to be at our best if we want to keep a clean sheet, which is our target at home."