Touma raises Twente expectations

When four-year-old Sharbel Touma left Lebanon in 1984 with his parents and eight siblings to settle in Sweden, few would have expected him to make a name for himself in European football.

Rapid rise
The Beirut-born winger has done just that. He has played twice for his adopted country, earned a move abroad to Dutch club FC Twente and has now tasted success in the UEFA Intertoto Cup. On Saturday, the 27-year-old fired a hat-trick against Kalmar FF that took his team through to the UEFA Cup at the expense of his compatriots. Twente's 3-1 triumph ultimately meant they had overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit.

First hat-trick
Touma's career first took off in 1997 when he made his breakthrough at Djurgårdens IF before enjoying spells at AIK Solna and Halmstads BK, winning two senior Sweden caps in the process. Two summers later he moved to Twente. His first two seasons in Enschede brought four and five goals, but his third campaign promises to top the lot after success in the summer competition.

'Even more beautiful'
"I have scored twice in a match several times in the past, but this is the first time I have managed three," said Touma. "It was a tough match. We worked very hard as a team and by that I do not mean the first eleven but the whole squad. Of course, it makes it even more beautiful that I was the one who scored the goals."

Twente belief
Touma levelled the aggregate scores early on, but a quickfire Kalmar equaliser meant Twente needed two. "We knew we had to score twice but we kept on believing we could do it," he said. And they did, with Touma smashing a first-time volley in the 72nd minute. "The ball took a long time to get to me and I started to get nervous, but luckily I hit it just the way I planned," he said.

Instinctive finish
The winner was not long in coming, as Blaise N'Kufo and Otman Bakkal combined to release Touma, who showed skill and composure to beat his man and slot the ball into the Kalmar net. The wide man claimed his decisive finish was instinctive. "At a moment like that, you don't have time to think about what you're doing, it all happens too quickly for that."

Impending draw
For now Twente's hero is happy to enjoy the moment rather than think about Friday's UEFA Cup second qualifying round draw. "You can draw a theoretically strong opponent and get through after all, but you can also draw a weaker one and get knocked out by them. It would be nice to have an interesting opponent and a new experience, but the most important is that we are in the draw at all."