Daizen Maeda breaks silence about Celtic transfer

After being linked with the club for over a month, it is finally official, Daizen Maeda is a Celtic player. The club announced the move today, along with the signings of Reo Hatate from Kawasaki Frontale and Yosuke Ideguchi from Gamba Osaka, in what was a massive triple boost for Ange Postecoglou’s side. The Hoops needed to strengthen their squad depth in the January transfer window and they have certainly done that already.

The most exciting of the three new arrivals might be Maeda. Celtic certainly needed to add to their options in the forward areas, with Jota, Kyogo, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Albian Ajeti, James Forrest and Karamoko Dembele all struggling with injuries.

Maeda topped the J1 League scoring charts in the 2021 season despite not being an out and out striker, and one would be hoping that he can make a similar impact at Celtic as well.

As reported by 67 Hail Hail, while speaking about his move to Celtic, Maeda told Yokohama F. Marinos’ website:

"“I am really grateful to my teammates and coaching staff for understanding the feeling of desire to take on the challenge again overseas. I’m going to find my own way so that I can make a good report! I’m going to BOSS!”"

Maeda breaks silence regarding his Celtic transfer move

It seems that Maeda is pretty happy with the prospect of working with Postecoglou once again. It was the manager who had brought him to Yokohama F. Marinos and he has now repeated the trick at Celtic. Let’s see if the results turn out to be as good as last time.

Maeda is the perfect player for Postecoglou’s system in many ways. He is incredibly fast, has brilliant stamina, good movement in the box, an eye for goal and the ability to finish with both his feet. On top of that, he has already played in Europe in the past with Portuguese side Maritimo.

Maeda’s biggest advantage though might be the fact that he is already very familiar with Postecoglou’s system and thus, it is not expected to take him as much time to adjust as it normally would at any other club.