sport news Celtic's Japanese trio heading to the World Cup trends now

Ange Postecoglou’s arrival at Celtic in the summer of 2021 hailed an extended period of introspection amongst the Hoops’ faithful.

Having missed out on the league title, denying them the much-coveted 10-in-a-row, to Steven Gerrard’s imperious Rangers side in 2020/21, Celtic supporters questioned the appointment of the relatively unknown Australian.

'A reckless gamble. Really the best we could get? Doubt it. Board embarrassing themselves again,’ one supporter wrote on social media.

Fast forward 10 months and Celtic had waltzed to the title playing attractive football and having qualified for the Champions League automatically for the first time in years.

A key part of last season’s success was owed to Postecoglou’s knowledge of what some saw as unusual markets for Scottish sides to be dipping into. 

Indeed, one person in the know told Sportsmail that was a significant reason for Celtic hiring the Australian.

Last summer, Postecoglou brought in Kyogo Furuhashi from Vissel Kobe - a player who almost immediately endeared himself to the Celtic faithful. A quick and nimble forward player, Kyogo scored eight Scottish Premiership goals in 15 appearances last season.

By Boxing Day, Kyogo had 16 goals in all competitions - including the winner at Hampden during the Scottish League Cup final - but, away at St Johnstone having just returned from injury, he broke down and was not seen until March. 

He played once more, ironically against the same side, before the league's annual top-six split. Four goals in six matches after the split reminded Celtic of what they had missed. 

By that time, two of his fellow Japanese international team-mates had been signed and their impact was significant enough from January that by the time Kyogo returned, the title was within touching distance.

Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda, signed from Kawasaki Frontale and Yokohama F. Marinos respectively, arrived with Celtic flying and having both played full campaigns of J League football. 

It was testament to their professionalism and fitness that they maintained high levels of performance until April, when their showings tailed off slightly, largely owing to having ploughed through a season in essence a year and half in length.

With all three having appeared in Japan's most recent squad for the internationals in September, it is expected they will all be part of Hajime Moriyasu's 26-man squad for the World Cup in Qatar. 

This is a lowdown on what observers might expect to see from Celtic's fabulous Japanese trio in November and December.   

Japan head into this World Cup having appeared at every edition since 1998. 

Since that appearance in France at the end of the 1990s, the nation has come on leaps and bounds in terms of its footballing development and heads to this World Cup with ambitions to emerge from the group - as they did in 2010 and 2018, most recently. 

Qualifying for the tournament with a game to spare after a dramatic victory over Australia in Sydney, Japan have been drawn with Germany, Costa Rica and Spain. 

Many see it as the group of death, with both Germany and Spain, who have won two of the last three World Cups between them, coming into the tournament in ominous form. 

So what, exactly, do Japan have in Kyogo, Maeda and Hatate that can hurt their three opponents? 

The first thing that should be noted, as has been pointed out by their club manager on various occasions, that they are all wildly different players and seemingly different personalities too. 

'It’s a bit lazy for us all to say, I’ve just brought in four Japanese. I’ve brought in four quality players who I think can add to what we’re doing here,' Postecoglou responded when asked about the four Japanese players he had signed as a collective back in January. 

'They have different personalities and they’ve had different career paths so far. They each will offer something different to the club.'

Indeed, the three - with Yosuke Ideguchi, the fourth, excluded owing to injuries - are not thought to be enormously close at Celtic. 

They are seldom seen out in public together and their personalities are different, with Kyogo slightly more integrated into the wider Celtic squad simply for having been here for longer. 

Born in Nara, the forward almost gave up on football at the age of 22 after struggling to crack it at the professional level.

'I was ready to give up. I’d been playing since I was five and did okay at student level. In my final year at university, I had trials at different teams but I couldn’t find a team,' he revealed in an interview in the summer. 

Having left Vissel Kobe, where he played alongside Andres Iniesta, Kyogo wound up at Celtic where he has emerged as one of the club's foremost stars. 

The supporters' song for him, which has been copied by Liverpool's terraces among others, is testament to just how much he is loved at Parkhead.

Kyogo is the most outgoing, again largely because his grasp of the English language is best. 

This September, he conducted his first full interview in English - a fact that has been pointed to as testament to his character, application and willingness to learn and immerse himself. 

Kyogo's influence in his first few months of last season were evidenced no better in his performance in the League Cup final in December. 1-0 down to an early second half Hibernian goal, Kyogo scored twice to win the trophy for Celtic and give Postecoglou an early taste of success at the club. 

His performance that day gave Celtic supporters, and indeed the wider football world, a closer look at his intelligent striker play. His run to peel off the Hibs defender and slot home calmly when chaos seemingly reigned all around him with Celtic 1-0 down showed a temperament key to any top level striker's game. 

Likely competing for a spot in the starting XI with Ayase Ueda, Kyogo can play across the wide areas but is most comfortable through the middle, where he has largely been used in green and white.