Kyogo Furuhashi’s goalscoring season may not be over quite yet for Celtic, with a big Scottish Cup Final ahead this weekend, but his double against Aberdeen on Saturday meant he finished the league campaign with 27 goals.
He is Celtic’s top scorer across 2022/23 in both the league and all competitions, also setting the high watermark for the entire Scottish Premiership, ahead of Kevin van Veen and Lawrence Shankland.
Kyogo’s goalscoring consistency hasn’t just been impressive in a Scottish context either – across Europe, he ranks highly, shooting into the top ten of the European Golden Boot standings.
The Premiership’s status means every goal Kyogo scored earned him 1.5 points in the Golden Boot race, rather than two, giving Kyogo a 40.5 tally. That’s been enough to stay ahead of the likes of Mohamed Salah at Liverpool and Karim Benzema at Real Madrid.
The award, presented by European Sports Media, will ultimately go to Erling Haaland after his phenomenal debut campaign in the English Premier League with Manchester City.
Kyogo has scored 33 goals from just 49 appearances in all competitions this term, a massive improvement on his first year in the Hoops which he ended with 20.
The Japanese forward has been a sensation and his status with the Celtic fans only grows. With more big cup goals and now derby efforts hitting the back of the net, he is undoubtedly the red-hot performer of Scottish football right now.
The only thing that’s really been missing from him is turning it on at the highest level in Europe, which he’ll get another chance to accomplish next season.
His form has also earned up another call-up to the Japanese national team for friendlies in his homeland next month, which he’ll be eager to impress in. There’s still lots more to come from our Kyogo.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou reacts to Celtic breaking post-war record.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
