Former Celtic winger Aiden McGeady has had his say on Kyogo’s impending move to Ligue 1 side Rennes.
McGeady, who spent 10 years at Celtic, with four of those in the Hoops youth academy before breaking through into the first team in 2004 under Martin O’Neill, saw his time at Celtic end with a £9.5 million move to Spartak Moscow in the Russian Premier League in 2010.
But he has always kept an eye on his former team, with Celtic always close to his heart. Having returned to Scotland in 2022, McGeady has been able to keep a closer eye on the Hoops for the majority of Kyogo’s successful time at the club.
Kyogo has proved to be one of Celtic’s best strikers since the King of Kings, Henrik Larsson, who McGeady worked with for a short period towards the end of the 2003/04 season, the Irishman has therefore seen one of the Bhoys’ best strikers in the club’s history first-hand, both in training and on the pitch.
Larsson, whose time at Celtic was as special as it comes, with every striker that has played at Parkhead since being compared to him, however, Kyogo has made his own Hoops legacy, proving to be a revelation from Japan with 85 goals in 165 games for Celtic.
Although Kyogo hasn’t reached the heights of Larsson, since 2021, he has played at the highest level up front since, with McGeady revealing why he believes a move for the Japanese forward has its positives and negatives.
McGeady said: (The Warm Up), “He is (Celtic’s best striker) but bringing in Adam Idah for that amount of money means he is the long-term prospect.
“Ultimately Celtic for the last 20 years have been a very well run organisation. Player trading model, Kyogo getting to that age is probably not the ideal time to sell him.
“Not saying he’s past his best, not saying that, but the ideal time to sell him might have been a year or two ago.
“The way Celtic look at things in my opinion is if you can get money for a player who is 30, not on the decline, but you don’t get two/three year contracts over the age of 30 anymore.
“If you can still get good money for one of your top players and bring success on the park, which Celtic have done for the last 15/20 years, it makes sense.”
Idah’s £9 million move to Celtic in the summer from Norwich City did signal that he was the Hoops’ striker for years to come. Although he hasn’t started week in, week out this season and has had a few goal droughts, he proved on Wednesday night the difference against Young Boys to seal Champions League knockout football with his run through the Swiss champions’ goal, ultimately leading to the winning goal to make history.
Kyogo will be sadly missed by every Celtic supporter, but looking from an outside perspective, selling a 30-year-old striker for £10 million isn’t a bad deal. As long as the Hoops can reinvest the money wisely in this window, a younger striker who has a proven record of scoring goals could be a shrewd signing.
Although, they will have a lot to live up to with the departure of Kyogo.
