‘We Never Stop’. The mantra that has followed Celtic since that infamous ‘Ange mic’d up’ video has never been more pertinent than it has been this morning.
Not allowing time for us to sit back and enjoy the Glasgow Derby win on Saturday, the club have posted two early Japan tour teasers just before announcing that the Bhoys will be heading there in the summer.
The first video features Jota and Daizen Maeda where the Portuguese winger is learning Japanese and the second video is a brilliant combination of Greg Taylor, Matt O’Riley and Alistair Johnston trying to eat sushi with chopsticks with Reo Hatate.
Ange Postecoglou spoke of his delight at the announcement and detailed the benefits of heading out to the country where he enjoyed enormous success with Yokohama F Marinos.
Ange said, “We are really looking forward to our summer tour to Japan, and we’re sure it will be hugely successful for the club and excellent preparation for next season.
“Clearly, Celtic has a real, long-standing connection with Japan, through previous visits and players such as Shunsuke Nakamura and, of course, now through our current squad members, so it will be great to visit and really bring this relationship to life.
“As we saw from our brilliant visit to Australia last year, the appetite for Celtic globally is huge and it is right that we maximise these great opportunities and show the world all that is great about our club.
“We wanted to pay respect to Japanese football so we are delighted to be engaging with the J-League and its clubs.
“Japanese football is on a real upward trajectory at the moment, so we know we will be facing real tests, something which will be great for the team as we go into the challenges of next season.” [Celtic FC]
Reports last month suggested that Celtic could be set to face Yokohama F Marinos with Manchester City, PSG and Bayern Munich all rumoured to be involved in the tour.
A meeting with the Japanese club would pit Ange Postecoglou, Daizen Maeda and Tomoki Iwata against their old clubs whilst Joe Hart would be facing the prospect of facing his former team Man City.
Yuki Kobayashi also gets to meet up with his old teammates at Yokohama after the Japanese defender spent a season on loan at the club in 2020.
Celtic will also take part in a European training camp this summer as part of our preparations prior to the week long stay in Japan.
As yet, we are waiting for the club to announce the finer details of the tour but this is a step in the right direction to expose Celtic to an ever-growing fanbase.
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