Kyogo Furuhashi has appeared in several media outlets in Japan since this summer, and this time I will share an impressive scene from what he said when he appeared on his former teammate’s YouTube channel.

He talked about the influence he received from David Villa, who played together at Vissel Kobe, as follows.

“After David Villa received a pass from side back in the game, when I saw that he finally decided to lob shot by playing with opponent’s center back while dexterously hold the ball with both feet in penalty area I got goosebumps. I thought that he was very good at moving to his own good shooting form just after receiving the ball.”

And he looked back on his feeling when he received an offer from Celtic in July 2021 as follows.

“I had already received several offers from European clubs in 2019, but at that time I still wanted to play at Vissel Kobe for as long as possible. But Celtic has really great history, and I had a strong desire to play outside of Japan, so I decided to join Celtic in 2021.”

He also revealed the behind-the-scenes of the hat trick in the game against Dundee FC held in August 2021 immediately after joining Celtic as follows.

“When I joined Celtic, world was still in the middle of a pandemic. Therefore, after spending 10 days in isolation at a hotel in London, I went straight to the hotel where our team stay for the game against Dundee FC. The first time I met my teammates was at the hotel’s lunch venue. I said “Nice to meet you” to my teammates, but to be honest, I felt like everyone was looking at me and they looked like thinking “Who are you?”

“It felt very awkward for me, the only Japanese, to suddenly join our team that had already been trained and united together. Still, I played at my first game with a strong determination to “I will definitely make it.” And I did a hat trick in that game. I realised that I gained trust of my teammates in that game.”

And he looked back on the two goals in Scottish League Cup final as follows…

“I was really happy inside. To be honest, I couldn’t see the front well because of smoke, but for some reason my body moved unconsciously and I was able to trap well.’

He looked back on the game against Real Madrid in Champions League as follows.

“Real Madrid played very high-level football. Not only did I feel that they were a very cohesive team, but their individual talent, positioning, passes, traps, and linkage were all wonderful. Anyway, their quality was so amazing. Also, the atmosphere at the moment the anthem at the full Celtic Park was so fantastic that I couldn’t stop getting goosebumps.”

Finally, he talked about his future goals as follows.

“I want to score 30 goals in one season in SPFL. Not only that, I want to be like the player who make many children say “I want to be a player like Furuhashi.” while brushing up my own skills further. And I hope my play will be opportunities to start thinking about wanting to be footballer for someone.”

That’s all.

Yatao

HUGE SAVINGS IN THE CELTIC STAR’S SUMMER SALE!

The Celtic Star’s Father’s Day Promotion has been so successful, with hundreds of books at great prices being posted to Celtic fans all over the world, that we’ve decided to continue with the sale until the end of July. We’ve reduced all six books currently available from their usual retail price of £20 and prices are as low as £6 (see below).

All books are high quality hardback, with some signed by the author. And it’s also worth noting that you only pay postage on one book, so it’s free for the second, third and so on. ORDER HERE or click on The Celtic Star image above…this is how it feels to be Celtic!