Celtic’s Japanese pioneer Shunsuke Nakamura

Celtic will have five Japanese players on its books in January. Centre-back Yuki Kobayashi will be the latest Japanese player to join the club.

Shunsuke Nakamura was the first Japanese player to represent Celtic. Nakamura was signed by Reggina for £2.5m in 2005. He was a fan favourite at Celtic and won the Scottish PFA Player of the Year award.

Japan lost 3-1 on penalties to Croatia in the World Cup. Maeda was the only Celtic player to make it to Qatar. Aaron Mooy played for Australia and Cameron Carter-Vickers for USA. Josip Juranovic is the lone Celtic in Brazil squad. He will play against Vinicius Junior in quarter-final on Friday afternoon.

Celtic signed Maeda and Furuhashi from Yokohama F. Marinos. FIFA announced a World Cup payment scheme. Clubs will receive £8,700 per day for each player. Ange Postecoglou signed the current crop of Japanese players. He has inside knowledge of the game from his time managing Yokahama. He believes the players are not part of a homogenous group. They are different players with different personalities.