Former Japanese international Marcus Tanaka has called on the Japan national team to build their side around Celtic star Kyogo Furuhashi following his superb scoring form this season.
Kyogo missed out on the Qatar World Cup despite being a regular for his nation in the years proceeding the tournament, which was an undoubted blow to the popular Bhoy.
Now Tanaka believes that Japan should bring him back into the fold and unleash him alongside the in-form Kaoru Mitoma of Brighton & Hove Albion, as well as the talented Takefusa Kubo of Real Sociedad.
Will Kyogo return to Japan set-up?
As quoted by The Herald, Tanaka said: “Kyogo Furuhashi is a player I want to see playing for Japan moving forward. He is an explosive striker and a very good player. I want him to play.
“We know he wasn’t taken to Qatar, but he is doing extremely well in Scotland, I can’t remember any Japanese player in Europe scoring as many goals as he has by this stage of a season ever.
“For me, the team should be built around Furuhashi, with Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma and Takefusa Kubo of Real Sociedad heavily involved too.”
Celtic striker deserves another chance
Japan have an upcoming friendly against Colombia in March so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of squad Hajime Moriyasu goes with. You can’t really say he got it wrong for the World Cup given their performance.
Nonetheless, Kyogo’s 22 goals this season have surely attracted renewed attention. He’s closing in on reaching the 30-goal mark and currently ranks sixth in the European Golden Boot standings. It’d be silly to keep him frozen out.
We know the Celtic man loves playing for his country so hopefully there’s a happy development here.
In other news, Update on Mikey Johnston’s Portuguese spell with winger destined for Celtic return.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
