Kyogo Furuhashi has admitted that he was greeted with a feeling of ‘Who is this guy’ when he turned up in the Celtic dressing room before last season’s SPFL opener away to Hearts.
Fresh from being knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers after extra time in Midtjylland the Celtic squad moved on to Edinburgh for a Saturday tea-time kick-off in front of 4,000 fans- none of them supporting Celtic.
Carl Starfelt and Kyogo came out of quarantine for the Tynecastle clash, the Swede was at fault for an early goal conceded to Gary Mackay-Steven.
In the 79th minute Ange Potecoglou sent on two substitutes, Kyogo and Ryan Christie with John Soutar heading a 90th minute winner to seal another week of misery for the new Celtic regime.
Reflecting on that introduction in an interview with Mainichi Shimbun, The Sun reports Kyogo saying:
After the transfer in July, I felt the atmosphere of, ‘Who is this guy?’ in the team. No wonder. I came off the bench in the first game of the season but that day was actually a case of, ‘Nice to meet you’ with my team-mates.
There was a quarantine for about ten days after entering from Japan at that point. So I had to join the team and play immediately. I participated in the second half, but I hadn’t even been training with the team, so I didn’t get a goal.
I tried my best in that game, but it didn’t work. However, I was able to score three goals in my first home match the following week. It was great that my first goals caught everyone’s hearts. I want to get even bigger numbers in the coming season.
I want to be humble, work hard and aim for the position of a hero but I already feel like I’ve crossed a mountain at Celtic.
Of course, I think I’ve won the trust of people by helping us to get results but everyone understood my character and I was able to break out of my shell.
On Sunday Kyogo is expected to play from the start against Aberdeen with the Japanese flags and Kyogo scarves confirming the impact that he has made over the last 12 eventful months.
