Japan national team boss Hajime Moriyasu appears to have overlooked Celtic’s Japanese stars once again.
Moriyasu has been in Europe recently to cast an eye over his players ahead of a friendly double header in June.
Daizen Maeda seems to be the only current Celtic player in the Japan fold, with Reo Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi last called up in September 2022.
Celtic also have Tomoki Iwata and Yuki Kobayashi on our books, but it appears like we’re still not attractive enough for Moriyasu to bother.
A report from Japanese outlet Sponichi has shed more details on Moriyasu’s travels in Europe. However, there is no mention of Celtic.
Translated, it explains that Moriyasu has been in Europe since April 14.
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He has been to see six games so far, including Brighton vs Manchester United in the FA Cup, where Kaoru Mitoma was featured.
He also went to see the Bundesliga clash between Frankfurt and Gladbach on April 15, as well as Düsseldorf vs Darmstadt in the division below.
He also strangely went to see Bayern Munich’s Champions League clash against Manchester City, despite neither team having a single Japanese player on their books.
The report says that Moriyasu is now in Düsseldorf but will soon move on to San Sebastián where Takefusa Kubo is playing for Real Sociedad.
Celtic have played twice since he touched down in Europe, including at Kilmarnock where we named more Japanese players in our starting line-up than ever before.
It’s a shame that Moriyasu seems more bothered about watching Champions League matches with no Japanese interest.
Of course, a trip to Scotland could still be in the offing. But there is no mention in the Sponichi report.
That’s strange when we have so much talent at the club.
In other news, three current Celtic players have been added to Scott Brown and Mikael Lustig’s big night at the Hydro