Normal service continues in Scotland for Celtic, as another Premiership title is wrapped up.
On Sunday, Celtic partied at Ibrox to celebrate title number 55, as they recorded a 1-1 draw against Barry Ferguson’s Rangers.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the afternoon was the fact that Daizen Maeda didn’t score, because he did so last time out, and he has been putting the ball away for fun in 2025.
There was that glorious chance the 27-year-old had right at the end, but he ended up making the wrong call, and the shares were spoiled.
Hours later, Celtic’s man of the moment was suited and booted, because he was at Scotland’s PFA awards to get recognised for his season’s work.
Maeda, alongside his Celtic captain Callum McGregor, the currently injured Nicolas Kuhn, and Dundee’s goalscoring machine, Simon Murray, were nominated for the PFA Player of the Year, and the obvious happened.
Daizen Maeda’s message to Celtic fans after winning Scotland’s PFA Player of the Year award
Maeda moped up the main prize, to nobody’s surprise, because this has been coming for months and months now.
The season isn’t over, yet the man from Japan has 33 goals and 12 assists to his name in all competitions.
When thanking everyone at Celtic for playing their part in him picking up such a coveted prize, he had one thing on his mind, as he posted the following message on Instagram.
“I am very honoured to receive these awards,” wrote Maeda.
“I would like to thank the manager, the coaching staff, and above all, my teammates. There is not much time left in this season, so let’s win a cup final and end the season with a treble, together with all of you Celtic fans!”
Players’ reaction to Maeda’s award
It’s no surprise that Maeda isn’t just a popular figure with the Celtic Park faithful, but amongst his peers as well.
Not only have his rivals voted him the best player in Scotland this term, but he also got a flood of positive messages on social media.
These were the messages that were posted in the comments section of Maeda’s IG post, from players past and present.
- Crystal Palace’s Daichi Kamada: ‘King 👑’
- Josip Juranovic: ‘Amazing, brother 🔥🔥’
- Luke McCowan: ‘💚💚💚’
- Arne Engels: ‘👏👏’
- Southampton’s Yukinari Sugawara: ‘Papa ❤️’
- Reo Hatate: “HERO 😎😎😎’
- Paulo Bernardo: ‘Crack 👌🏻💚’
- Tomoki Iwata: ‘👏👏👏👏 🍀🍀 💚💚’
- Oh Hyeongyu: ‘💚🔥’
- Joe Hart: ‘Amazing 💚’
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