What a start to the weekend! Reo Hatate has signed a new five-year contract with Celtic that will see him remain at the club until 2028!
The 25-year-old midfielder has become a fans’ favourite since joining from J-League side, Kawasaki Frontale, back at the start of 20222, and he becomes the latest player in Brendan Rodgers’ squad to commit his future to Celtic.
🎶 Reo, Reo Hatate 🎶
We are delighted to announce that Reo Hatate has today signed a new five-year deal with the Club! 💚🤍#ReoHatate2028 | #CelticFC🍀
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 29, 2023
Already we have seen the club tie up the likes of Callum McGregor, Kyogo, Daizen Maeda and Liel Abada on new long term deals. Anthony Ralston was added to the list earlier this week and now the much rumoured Hatate contract extension has gone through with the supremely talented Japan international putting pen to paper this afternoon.
The next move from Michael Nicholson while he is on a roll is to sit down with Matt O’Riley give him a new contract and show him where to sign!
There are also the Joe Hart and David Turnbull situations to be sorted out with both players out of contract in the summer. Brendan Rodgers has already spoken about a new deal in the pipeline for the former Motherwell midfielder and this week he talked about Joe Hart in glowing terms when asked about succession.
Reo Hatate, who has now been capped three times by the Japanese national side, has made 71 appearances for Celtic, scoring 14 goals, the most recent coming from the penalty spot last weekend in the 3-0 win over Livingston.
He made his debut in a 2-0 win over Hibernian at Celtic Park back in January 2022, and scored his first goal for the club in his next game – a 2-1 win over Hearts at Tynecastle. And in his fourth appearance for the Hoops, he showed his quality with two goals in a 3-0 Glasgow Derby skelping at Paradise. That was the night that Celtic went top of the league looking down on theRangers and we’ve never left the summit of the table ever since.
Reo has won four trophies so far for Celtic, including last season’s historic Treble, and he is aiming to bring further success to the club in the years ahead. Speakin to the official Celtic website, Reo Hatate said: “I am delighted to agree this new contract with Celtic and commit my future to the Club. I love playing for Celtic in front of the best fans around and I hope we can have more and more success together.
🇯🇵 | 𝙃𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙎𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙨 𝙁𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙡
– "𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑪𝒆𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓." pic.twitter.com/EswM6hE8ZJ
— Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) September 29, 2023
“We have a lot of challenges ahead of us this season and beyond, both in Scotland and in the Champions League, and we are all ready as a team to tackle these together. We will give everything we have to bring our fans more good times.
“I have had the best welcome ever since I joined the club and I want to thank all our fans for the great support they continue to give to us all.”
Brendan Rodgers was understandably delighted to sign up such a lovely footballer on a long term contract. The Celtic manager said: “I am delighted that Reo has agreed this new contract. It is great news for both Reo himself and for the team and the Club.
“I have had some great discussions with him in recent weeks, I know he loves the club and our supporters and how ambitious he is to bring more success to the club. Reo has already shown us what a talent he is, making a great contribution to the team since he has joined Celtic.’
“He is a huge talent, an exciting young player with great attributes and someone who can change a game. I know he is the type of man and player, though, who doesn’t want to rest. He is hungry to improve every day and achieve more and more to be the very best he can be – and Celtic is a great place for him to do this.
“We go forward now together with real confidence and I really look forward to continuing our work with him and the rest of the squad as we face all our challenges ahead.”
What a reception Reo is going to get at Fir Park tomorrow and then at Celtic Park in midweek against Lazio in the Champions League.
🤷♂️ 𝑹𝒆𝒐 𝑯𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 at it again 🤷♂️ #CELRAN | #cinchPrem | #COYBIGpic.twitter.com/voevwHzjmj
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) February 2, 2022
Reo Hatate 5 Year Deal 🤝🏽 🍀 pic.twitter.com/aw44OhN15c
— Celtic Curio (@Celticcurio) September 29, 2023
💚 “I love playing for Celtic in front of the best fans around and I hope we can have more and more success together.”#Hatate2028 | #CelticFC🍀 pic.twitter.com/6OvJ53cnnH
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 29, 2023
Sorry it's late, Admin was busy👀 https://t.co/Fv6RlFwOYH pic.twitter.com/akt414f8ht
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 29, 2023
Meanwhile Thursday 19 October is going to be a very special day for The Celtic Star so please save the date…
Brilliant news and a huge show of intent from the club in the planning for the future along with the present.
Contracts only offer security for a player along with the club without usually much meaning to them, as money can usually show how meaningless they can remain.
I don’t however believe this is the case with all those who have earned the right to improved contracts, and leaves the club potentially in the strongest position it has been in many a long year in term’s of quality and financially.
To get the improvements required within CL a fair degree of stability had to be formed within the playing squad, and that process is well underway currently with Reo adding to it now.
Getting O’Riley tied down also to ourselves would be another great achievement and hope that can be finalised soon enough also.
We may have been seen as a development club as such in many ways, with how we have had to operate within such a money mad footballing world?
But at least we are finally seeing the winds of change, where other team’s won’t be able to take our prized assets so easily now and the worry about transfer windows are no longer as big as an issue that once was, with losing players?