The SFA recognise three former Celtic players in blueprint to improve young Scottish football talent

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The SFA have published a report on improving young Scottish talent and in doing so, have namechecked three former Celtic players.

The governing body seems to be acting on improving young football talent’s progression from academy to senior first-team football and has listed three former Celtic heroes as an example of how hard work and dedication can pay off.

Named, ‘Report on Transition from Academy to First Team Football‘ the SFA are clearly looking to safeguard the national team by trying to find ways of improving youngsters to ensure that they are not only ready to make the jump to senior football but to also try and progress their development into national players of the future.

As part of the report, the SFA spoke to former professionals and players close to the game as they found that ‘the importance of continued work on technique / positional fundamentals’ was key to a player’s development whilst still playing first-team football.

Kieran Tierney, Shunsuke Nakamura and Virgil van Dijk named in SFA report

To give examples of this, the SFA said they spoke to someone close to this matter and that they named three former Celtic heroes as shining examples of how continued hard work can pay off despite becoming an established first-team player.

The report stated, “Someone close to the situation gave the example of the two players who have gone on to play at the highest level of the game in the past 20 years of Celtic’s history – Kieren Tierney and Virgil van Dijk – as both requiring and committing to, continued work on the fundamentals while playing for the 1st team.

“Meanwhile Shunsuke Nakamura, who was regarded as one of the best free-kick takers in the world, was known for his relentless repetition and work ethic after team training.”

Whilst Tierney was an academy graduate at Celtic, van Dijk was picked up by the club after being signed when he was part of the Dutch U21 international squad.

Both players have since gone on to play for Arsenal and Liverpool at the highest level whilst still remaining dedicated to improving their game.

Nakamura was already an established Japan international and senior player but as the report states, his dedication to set-piece training whilst at Celtic was second to none.

Celtic have already put the foundations in place to improve their hopes of progressing young talent through their ranks after appointing Darren O’Dea as the Player Pathway Manager.