Celtic duo Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate have both been welcomed back into the international fold by Hajime Moriyasu after having an impressive season for Celtic.
As the club stands on the brink of a historic eighth domestic treble, the Japan national boss recognised both players’ contributions to Celtic’s current achievements by including them in the squad for the Kirin Cup double header against Peru and El Salvador.
Celtic boss, Ange Postecoglou was asked what he thought about their inclusion in the squad and whilst he said he was pleased for them, he couldn’t resist having a light-hearted pop at Moriyasu for his reasons at the Celtic pairs exclusion from the Qatar World Cup squad.
Postecoglou quipped [The Herald], “Maybe Scottish football has improved in the last six months…I’m pleased for both of them.
“I had no doubt they’d get another opportunity. They have been outstanding for us and it’s fully deserved. I know they were both disappointed, particularly with the World Cup, but also with subsequent selections.
“They’ll get a buzz at being in there. It’s always great to go to the national team on the back of a season where you’ve won a few medals, as part of a team as well as individually. It’s a great reward for them.”
Of course, Ange was referring to Moriyasu’s claim that the standard of the Scottish league was taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to include Hatate or Kyogo for the Qatar squad. Even though he still continued to select Daizen Maeda.
But now Kyogo and Hatate can look forward to next month knowing that they will have the opportunity to represent their countries once more. Hatate has a solitary cap for the Samurai Blues and Kyogo is on course to claim his seventeenth appearance for Japan.
First things first. The Scottish Cup Final awaits both players and if we can manage to bring the trophy home, the international call-ups will be the icing on the cake for what has been an outstanding season for the Celtic pair.
In other news, Kyogo creates Japanese football history after goalscoring exploits with Celtic
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