Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi was in front of the media in Japan on Friday.
The Hoops first-team have travelled west from Yokohama and are now in Osaka where they will face Gamba Osaka on Saturday.
Like against F. Marinos, there was a pre-match press conference arranged featuring Furuhashi and manager Brendan Rodgers.
The club have released a short part of this on their YouTube channel and it does feature some interesting responses from our goalscoring hero.
Given that Furuhashi’s Celtic press conferences are almost always in English, it must be particularly nice for him to hear questions asked in his native language, and to be able to answer without the need for a translator.
It seems like he definitely came in to his own after being asked about his new Celtic contract.
“Kyogo, you renewed your contract during this off season,” came the question from a Japanese reporter. “But can you tell us the reason why? I know there were a lot of rumours but does this contract extension mean that you have made your mind up to continue playing for Celtic?”
“Yes exactly,” Kyogo replied. “There are lots of people here who believe in me and love me and need me.
“I was very happy when I was offered a contract extension and I want to continue to repay the favour with results.”
He is right when he says that people at Celtic believe in him, love him and need him. That pretty much sums up how supporters feel about him, so it’s great to know that he’s aware of that.
While we’re hoping for plenty of transfer incomings between now and the window closing, signing Furuhashi up for a further two years may be our best business of the summer.
He scored 34 goals last season and 20 the year before that, despite missing four months. Now imagine how much it would likely have cost us to replace that kind of contribution.
Cracking the Champions League is likely to be his next big target. He hasn’t failed too many tests so far in Scotland.
In other news, FIFA are currently testing an ambitious VAR move that could be seen at Celtic Park one day
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