‘I was surprised’ – How Celtic’s Daizen Maeda impressed former Yokohama star

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Daizen Maeda is famed for his work rate and pace. The Celtic fans love how the Japanese forward just seems to have endless amounts of energy as he chases and harries opponents and works hard for the team.

But it was his pace that impressed former Japan international defender Yuzo Kurihara. Kurihara was at Yokohama F Marinos for 18 years but left the club the season before Maeda was signed.

But he says that the Celtic winger is one of the quickest players ever to have come from Japan. Kurihara said it was a toss-up between Nagoya’s Kensuke Nagai and Celtic’s Maeda.

Kurihara said [Football Zone], “The young players from F Marinos have been talking to me about how he [Maeda] might be faster than [Kensuke] Nagai, and I thought, ‘That’s ridiculous’.

“But when Daizen joined F Marinos in 2020, I was surprised, not exaggerating, because he was almost as fast as Nagai.

“When we talk about who was faster than Nagai among the players I’ve experienced, it’s a debate between Onenaru and Nagai, and there aren’t many players as fast as Onenaru.

“F Marinos also had Teru (Teruto Nakagawa, now FC Tokyo), but the quality of his speed was different, Teru was quicker and trickier. Nagai and Maeda have more horsepower.

“Of course, there were other Japanese riders who I felt were ‘fast’. But I personally think Nagai and Maeda are twin peaks, at a level unrivalled by any other.” [translated by Deep L]

We have seen first-hand just how fast Maeda is. In fact, Kyogo is probably up there as well as one of the quickest players we have seen at Celtic.

Maeda can, at times, let his speed make him clumsy in the challenge as we witnessed against Hibs at the end of the season.

But would we change that for anything? Absolutely not. The number of times his pace and energy have benefitted Celtic far outweighs a solitary red card that cost us a nothing three points at the end of the season. It’s one of the reasons why we love him so much.

In other news, Hyeongyu Oh’s reward as Celtic striker is called up to South Korea national squad