DAIZEN MAEDA CELTIC CONTRACT: HAS STRIKER LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG EARLY?
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
This week has, thus far, seen the other major force in Scottish football dominate the headlines.
However, I’m not bitter and I would like to congratulate Hearts on their new investment.
Who did you think I was talking about?
Is Daizen Maeda Celtic Contract Extension a Done Deal?
Anyway, back on to Celtic. The club made a somewhat cryptic (or was it just poorly signposted) social media post the other day about Daizen Maeda. This led to speculation that our top goal scorer may be about to confirm an extension to his Celtic contract.
However, the club has, at the time of writing, not confirmed this, or even clarified what that initial post was supposed to mean.
Maeda himself meanwhile was back over here in Japan this week, for a special event hosted by his former club Mito Hollyhock where he watched as they overcame fellow J-2 side V-Varen Nagasaki by 3 goals to nil. It was at Mito where Maeda first made his name in Japan’s second tier, before stepping up to the top flight with my own local team Matsumoto Yamaga.
So, I can still boast that I got to see Daizen in green and white hoops a couple of years before the rest of you did!
Anyway, Maeda was interviewed at the event, alongside fellow Mito alumni Ryotaro Ito, who now plays in Belgium with Sint-Truiden.
Unprompted Daizen said the following about his Celtic future: ”I was in great form this season, both personally and so were the team. So, I'd like to keep it going next season.”
For further emphasis, he added: "I am who I am because of my team, Celtic.”
That phrase will be music to the ears of supporters the world over as we await, hopefully, confirmation in the next few weeks that he has, indeed, extended his contract.
Daizen didn’t stop there though. Always the team player, he went on to acknowledge the support of his teammates and his family throughout a long, hard season.
The striker said: "I'd like to thank my teammates and, above all, my family for supporting me so far.
And our lighting fast Japanese forward has no plans to slow down either. He closed out the interview by adding:
"I'd be happy if I could score more goals next season. I hope the number of goals will continue to increase.”
We hope so too Daizen, we hope so too.
Now, this isn’t an official confirmation from Celtic, and I would wait until such a confirmation comes through before we celebrate. However, I’ve been on record as saying several times that I believe securing our best player and most potent scorer on a longer-term deal is integral to Celtic’s plans for next season before we sign anyone else.
As much as I criticize the Celtic board, getting this new contract over the line would go a long way to buying them some time and some goodwill from myself and I’m sure a great many other Celtic supporters around the world.
Thank you to The Celtic Way for bringing this story to my attention.
Unlike The S*n, who went ahead and plagiarized these quotes as if they were their own work, I believe it’s important to attribute the efforts of other journalists if you’re going to quote their stories verbatim.
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