Operation Osaka as Celtic announce another pre-season date
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Motherwell - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 14, 2022 Celtic's Yosuke Ideguchi, Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda celebrates winning the Scottish Premiership with the trophy Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington
Celtic have announced that they will play Gamba Osaka during their week long trip to Japan in July.
Ange Postecoglou has signed six players from the J-League since he moved to Celtic from Yokohama F Marinos almost two years ago.
Raising the profile of the club while giving players meaningful pre-season action seems like the perfect combination with the Gamba Osaka match on July 22 coming three days after Celtic face Yokohama F Marinos.
? Our second game in Japan is confirmed, @CelticFCJPN! ?
? Gamba Osaka
? July 22, 2023
? 7pm Local Time/11am CPT
? Panasonic Stadium Suita, OsakaCan’t wait until July, @GAMBA_OFFICIAL! ???
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) May 25, 2023
Celtic will then travel to South Korea where they will play Wolves on July 26 after which they are likely to return to Scotland for final preparations for the SPFL season which starts on August 5/6.
Other than that there isn’t much detail on Celtic’s pre-season plans although they will go to mainland Europe for specialist training after initially checking in at Lennoxtown.
Captain Callum McGregor and others will be on international duty until June 17 which is likely to mean, at most a three week break for many players.
With the European Championship Finals being held between June 14 to July 14 next summer the return of the January break in 2024 will be essential.