When it comes to the redemptive powers of hard work, Teemu Pukki is a convert. The striker, leading Norwich’s push for promotion from the Championship, was bombed out of Celtic a few seasons ago and moved to the Danish side Brøndby with his tail between his legs. But in Copenhagen he learned the joys of selfless effort and, to be fair, he has not looked back since.

“It was at Brøndby when I realised that it’s really good for me to be fit,” the Finland forward says. “I think it just happened that we started the pre-season with a new coach, who was German, and I felt: ‘OK, I’m fit now.’ In the matches I was defending more but I was more in the game and would get more involved in the attack that way as well. If I do a lot of work for the team, it really helps me too.”

Pukki does not intend this as a slight on any previous club or on himself. The 28-year-old has been fortunate enough to play in some of the biggest competitions, and with some of the biggest clubs, in Europe; from joining Sevilla as a 17-year-old to signing for Schalke, as well as his time at Celtic. But he is humble enough to acknowledge that things have gone wrong in his career and mature enough to learn from those setbacks. “Physically I was not strong enough to play at Celtic and I know myself it was not my best time as a football player, for sure,” he says. “But I think without that experience it would be much harder here now as well.”

Here now is going pretty well. After scoring 17 times for Brøndby last season, Pukki decided not to renew with the club and to try something else once more. Despite his reservations about the Championship – “I thought it was all long balls” – he signed for Norwich on a free transfer. After 22 games Norwich are a point behind Leeds at the top of the Championship and unbeaten in the past 10 matches going into Saturday’s match at Blackburn. Pukki, meanwhile, has 13 goals, an improvement on the seven he managed in his one full season at Celtic. “I would say we play football,” Pukki says of his new team’s style. “We want to play from behind, with passing. There’s a lot of movements, a lot of running from the guys and a lot of short passing. And we are creating a lot of chances, something that’s really important for me.”

Teemu Pukki celebrates after scoring against Queens Park Rangers in September. Photograph: JASONPIX/REX/Shutterstock

He was initially used as an inside-forward at Carrow Road, where his energy and running would harass full-backs and open up space, but Norwich had an uncertain start to the season that looked like becoming a problem. They went into their match against Middlesbrough in September with five points from their six games. Pukki, who had scored twice for Finland during the preceding international break, was asked to play further forward. The move worked, when the new striker’s poked finish from 10 yards decided the match.

Pukki has scored a number of impressive goals this season, though not necessarily in the way one would expect. He has not scored from range or dribbled through a packed defence but he scored one with his chest, a couple by squeezing out shots in the tiniest of spaces and converted two match-winning opportunities in added time. In his finishing, as well as his general play, he has shown an ability to adapt to situations when it matters.

A case in point is the goal Pukki scored in the seventh minute of added time against Millwall, a 4-3 victory that he counts alongside the Boro match as the most important game of City’s season so far. Running on to a pass in the box Pukki had been challenged by a defender and lost control of the ball, only for it to loop a moment later over the keeper and roll into the net. “I was going for the shot but then he touched it,” Pukki says, recalling the process of that split-second. “So I had to try to catch the ball with my left foot before it went out, which fortunately I did. My right foot was still following from the first decision, though, and so the ball just popped in the goal.”

The way Pukki describes it the goal is a combination of fortune and persistence. Both elements are also important in a footballer’s career and Pukki is on an upswing. He jokes that “the German way” is to his liking after his experience at Schalke, Brøndby and under Daniel Farke.

Now at the seventh club in his career, has he finally found a home? “It’s too early to say anything about the end of this season and how it will go but I hope we can just keep doing what we’re doing and getting the results,” he says. “But I’ve been around and it’s always hard to go to a new club so, yes, it would be nice to stay long in one place.”