Celtic hero Daizen Maeda revisited his first club Matsumoto Yamaga and took part in a training session ahead of pre-season.
Maeda made his J-League debut with Yamaga back in 2016, with the club now operating in the J3 League. During his time there, Daizen was sent out on several loan spells including his first trip to Europe with Maritimo.
It was from Matsumoto Yamaga that Maeda would eventually transfer to Yokohama F.Marinos under Ange Postecoglou. And as he closes in on his own return to Lennoxtown, he’s spent time with his old club during one of their practice sessions:
The post from the club simply states: “Recently, Daizen Maeda, a player who was back in Japan for an off day, visited the Karigane Soccer Field and participated in practice.”
The post doesn’t state when the visit took place. However, Maeda, Kyogo, and Reo Hatate have all been visiting their former clubs during the off-season.
Furuhashi spent some time with Vissel Kobe last week whilst Hatate has already been to visit Kawasaki Frontale’s stadium and training base.
Daizen Maeda makes classy visit ahead of Celtic return
It’s a real sign of the class these Celtic players have that they’ve been going to visit their former clubs to say goodbye. Not just to their former teammates and supporters, but to the staff too.
Giorgos Giakoumakis also did similar when he went to visit his first ever professional club earlier this summer. There’s real evidence here that these players aren’t forgetting their roots.
As much as Celtic supporters love talented players who give their all for the club. They also love them to an even greater degree if they come across as genuinely classy people. That’s the kind of individual we want representing our club.
In addition to that, it’s great to see Daizen hard at work so close to returning to pre-season. A manager’s worst fear heading into the summer break must be that their players return out of shape. It doesn’t look as if that’s going to be the case with Diazen, that’s for sure.
Celtic welcomed a host of first-team stars back to Lennoxtown for today’s return to pre-season training.
It won’t be long before Maeda and the rest of the Celtic international stars rejoin them.
In other news, Celtic post first images of pre-season training as players return to Lennoxtown
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