By now, it should be pretty clear that Kyogo made a mistake leaving Celtic. He was an absolute superstar at Parkhead for three-and-a-half years and a fan favourite. His form had dipped since the departure of Ange Postecoglou but even under Brendan Rodgers, he was putting up decent numbers and part of a winning unit.
Kyogo would end up leaving last January to join Rennes. It became clear immediately that he was not part of the plans at the French Ligue 1 club. As a result, he would end up leaving in the summer to join Birmingham City. But once again, the Japanese international has failed to establish himself.
The desire to play at the next World Cup was believed to be one of the motivating factors behind Kyogo's exit. But those chances have only been hurt over the past twelve months.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he has been linked with a return to Celtic. The Hoops remain in search of a striker, having never replaced Kyogo and then allowed Adam Idah to leave without a replacement as well. Could they bring back the Japanese striker? Or is a Serbian international the answer for them?
Celtic tipped to sign Serbian international striker over Kyogo
GIVEMESPORT have put out a report suggesting that Celtic should try to sign Andrej Ilic of Union Berlin instead of Kyogo. An excerpt from it reads:
"For Ilic, Celtic might not be getting a proven goalscorer like Kyogo, but his all-round game could be really beneficial to Nancy. Plus, at just 25 years of age, the Serbian is yet to enjoy the best years of his career.
Ilic is a really exciting player and if Celtic were to snap up his signature, he could be a real success at Parkhead for many years to come."
Kyogo is a very good player, there is no doubt about that. But he is now past 30. At the same time, one has to wonder what kind of impact the past year has had on him. A lot of strikers rely on confidence, and his might be at rock bottom at this point.
As for Ilic, he has had an interesting season. He has 9 goal contributions in 16 games for Union Berlin, which is a great return. But 8 of them are assists.