Daizen Maeda is one of several Celtic players missing for tonight’s visit to face Hearts at Tynecastle, in arguably Celtic’s biggest game of the season so far and he’s been speaking to the media in Japan, as reported by Daily Record about how his goalscoring rate at Celtic will ensure future call-ups with Japan – a win-win situation for Maeda assuming he can deliver.
“I’ve only played two games so far for Celtic, but it’s going well. I know that I have been called up not because of the transfer, but because of my achievements last season in Japan. To stay in this team I will have to fight hard for Celtic and score goals for them too.
“Last year in November I got called up, but never got off the bench and I have a feeling of regret over that. I think every player feels like that if they don’t get on. But it makes me even more determined to make an impact in these two games. I hope I can do something that will be enough to take us to the World Cup Finals.
“Kyogo Furuhashi wished me good luck before I left and I hope he is back soon.”
Maeda has certainly impressed with his first goal for the club against Hibs at Celtic Park and then playing a wider role in the 2-1 Scottish Cup fourth round win against Alloa Athletic on Sunday night.
Of course, it’s a blow to miss out on Maeda for important ties like tonight and the upcoming games with Dundee United on Sunday and theRangers on 2 February, but we always knew such absences would be a regular occurrence when signing a Japanese international, and it should be viewed as an honour for Celtic as much as it is for the player himself to have a player good enough to represent his country.
That said, if like last time, Daizen Maeda travels halfway around the world only to collect splinters in his backside watching the games from the sidelines, I’m not so sure ‘an honour’ would be my first description of that particular scenario.
Hopefully however Maeda will get the chance to hit the back of the net for Japan in their upcoming World Cup qualifiers, while his teammates ensure he comes back to a title race that is blown wide open by the time he returns.
Niall J
