Celtic’s new bhoy, Kyogo Furuhashi, has tolf of how he doen’t want to be compared to the Hoops former legendary midfielder Shunsuke Namakura.
Furuhashi set out his expectations of becoming his own man and spoke of his admiration of fellow countrymen Nakamura, Nakata and Honda but also fired a warning to his new opponents and his team mates, “As a child, my hero was Ronaldinho and swimmers like Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps, but that all changed once I started playing with David Villa and Andres Iniesta.
“I have been compared with a few players like Shunsuke Nakamura, Hidetoshi Nakata and Keisuke Honda.
“All three were great players and are legends in Japan.
“But I want to carve my own name in the history books. I don’t want to be the new anyone.
“I consider myself fast, explosive and I can play in any forward position. But most of all I absolutely hate losing.”
The Japanese international does come with a high pedigree and his form for Vissel Kobe certainly did not go unnoticed by Ange Postecoglou as he splashed £4.5m on the front man.
With six caps for Japan and three goals, at just 26 years of age, Furuhashi still has his best years ahead of him and is that first team ready player the Celtic fans have been crying out for.
With the large outlay and the fact that Cetic have now dipped their toe in the Japanese market, there is no doubt now at who is calling the shots when it comes to transfer business at the club.