Kyogo Furuhashi shares story of rallying support from his Celtic teammates after World Cup pain

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The story of Kyogo Furuhashi not making Japan’s World Cup squad for Qatar dominated the headlines in Scotland last winter.

The Japanese striker was widely expected to be selected by Hajime Moriyasu for the Samurai Blues but, incredibly, the Japan boss failed to select him, and Reo Hatate, with the excuse given that the standard of the Scottish league was a factor in his decision.

Quite incredible considering Moriyasu still selected Daizen Maeda. However, Kyogo has opened up on the night he found out the news.

It was the evening that Celtic were due to face Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and the Hoops striker has revealed the rallying call of support he got from his teammates on the bus on the way to the stadium.

Kyogo said, [Goethe], “The opponents were Real Madrid, one of the world’s most powerful teams. On the bus on the way to the away end, my teammates called out to me, ‘You’ll be fine.’, ‘Our striker is KYOGO.’, ‘You just have to keep scoring goals.’

“I think almost everybody, including [former England international] Joe Hart, said that.

“It took me a little while to get back on my feet, but I could feel that a lot of my teammates trusted me. I was happy.

“That’s why I was able to strongly believe that I would achieve my goals, and I think I was able to peel myself back.” [translated by Deep L]

Missing out on the World Cup was a major disappointment for Kyogo. The reasons given by Moriyasu where just as disappointing too. And it was brilliant to hear how the Celtic squad put their arms around Kyogo at such a difficult time for him.

But now, the Japanese striker is back in the national fold, impressed and scored in one of his last two outings this summer in the Kirin Cup wins against El Salvador and Peru.

Kyogo will undoubtedly be targeting the next Japan squad in September and has already opened up his goalscoring account for Celtic this season.

If he keeps that up Celtic will benefit hugely and Moriyasu will have no reason not to select him for future squads.

In other news, Confirmed: Match officials announced for Aberdeen v Celtic