How Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi became Scottish football's leading man in less than six months

The Japan international arrived at a club that, to put it mildly, was in a state of flux.

A disastrous season was still fresh in the memory, a new manager was just in the door, numerous key players had left or were in the process of leaving, several signings had been drafted in and expected to gel in double-quick time, the team was already eliminated from the Champions League qualifiers and the board facing fan protests over the running of the club.

Add to that the fact this was a new country, language and culture for the club's latest number eight to adapt to and allowing a little added time to acclimatise would not have been unwarranted.

Yet he has taken it all magnificently in his stride as Ange Postecoglou's headline signing and the embodiment of a new era at Parkhead. 

More than that, in just less than six months the 26-year-old has become the leading man of Scottish football as a whole.

Here, The Celtic Way takes a look at just how that has happened...

The goals

One of the signs of a truly excellent player is when the statistics and the eye test come to the same conclusion and nobody is surprised.

And, make no mistake, Kyogo shines in both the raw statistics - he has 16 goals and two assists in 26 games, although his minutes played puts him closer to the equivalent of 21 matches - and the underlying ones.

OBV, StatsBomb's new metric for assessing the value of every action on the pitch and thus offering the most detailed picture of a player’s impact, has Kyogo listed as top of the pile for shooting. It's not even particularly close, in all honesty.

The same goes for xG/shot - another reflection of his clinical qualities - and helps dismiss any notion, if there was one, that this is simply a player enjoying a purple patch.

Indeed, even his shot map is eye-catching in its quality – literally every shot he takes in the league is inside the box and central (the ideal locations). The goals he has scored include using his right foot, left foot, head and, on one notable occasion we'll come to shortly, his chest.

Simply put, Kyogo is statistically superb and stands out among his peers in the spreadsheets as well as on the grass.

The movement

It's hard to convey just how 'switched on' Kyogo is compared to everyone else, but let us try by picking out three of his goals in which his own movement played a crucial part.

Jota plays the ball through to Kyogo against Ferencvaros

1. Ferencvaros at home: He is not only in between the centre-backs but already well on his way to a full running position while the defenders haven't even had the time to adjust their body shape to combat it. He couples this with a great piece of control and composed finish afterwards to put Celtic 1-0 up.

Tom Rogic's quick free-kick against Hibs at Hampden

2. Hibs in the League Cup final: He is so fast off the mark here that the camera makes it look like he might be offside. He wasn't - Rogic has just played a lovely quick free-kick that pretty much only Kyogo was prepared for.  Like the first example, he is just that bit quicker of thought than the defenders and is free on goal as a result. The rest, as they say, is history.

3. Aberdeen at Pittodrie: This is my personal favourite. From a quick throw-in, this goal reinforces the Kyogo-thinks-faster-than-the-rest narrative and this is exemplified further by the fact Dons defender David Bates is not even considering adopting a proper defensive stance yet and that Turnbull hasn't even controlled the ball to cross it. Kyogo ingeniously finishes this one with his chest just to sprinkle an extra bit of magic on proceedings. Here's the goal:

That's not why it's my favourite, though. I like it so much because there's a wee moment just as Celtic win the throw-in that sums up just how alert Kyogo is to what's going on around him. Here it is:

Kyogo sensed an opportunity before there was one

There doesn't seem to be a lot going on here at first glance. Until you spot Kyogo, who is ready to sprint into the highlighted space should Turnbull catch the ball and take an even quicker throw than he does. He is literally the only one switched on enough to notice that there's a scoring opportunity to be had there.

As it was, Turnbull didn't catch the ball first time but instead bounced it once before scooping it up and taking what was still a very quick throw-in, receiving it back and crossing for the goal as in the initial image. 

It's a fleeting moment. Ultimately insignificant and not of any direct influence on the goal straight after it. But it's just very Kyogo - he makes a point of identifying what might happen and prepares accordingly just in case.

READ MORE: 'We told you so'  - How Ange Postecoglou's Celtic success is viewed in Japan and Australia

There are also the countless other times he has anticipated potential angles and created space for passes that just haven’t come. He doesn’t switch off at that point either though, it’s just not in his make-up.

He replicates that worth ethic off the ball too, where he continually sets the tone for Celtic’s pressing and already has a reputation for tracking back to an almost otherworldly extent (see, for one example, his winning the ball back deep in his own half to start the move that led to Jota’s opener against Motherwell back in October).

The humility

Take your pick here, there are plenty of reasons fans and neutrals alike have been endeared to Kyogo in such a short space of time.

There is the way he embraces the responsibility that comes with being Celtic’s number one striker after being brought to Glasgow by Postecoglou himself.

“Good luck trying to keep Kyogo out that team today,” as Postecoglou said after the League Cup final. “There was no chance – he would’ve sneaked on a bus and snuck onto the field at some point! He just had it in his head he was going to play.

"He wanted to help the team and the players. He wanted to be a part of it all. I know his mentality. He felt responsible to go out there and help the players.”

There is the way he seems genuinely enthused for his team-mates even when confined to the stands due to injury (not to mention the way he waited to greet every one of them after a pre-match warm-up too)...

There is the fact he stops to pick up pitch-side litter after being subbed off, or the heart-warming Halloween prank video which helped illustrate just how much the other players have taken to him.

Then there is the dignified way he responded to the hateful racist abuse he had faced just weeks after touching down in his new city...

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A post shared by 古橋亨梧/Kyogo Furuhashi (@kyogo_furuhashi)

A class apart off the pitch as well, it seems.

The silverware

Ultimately this is what it all comes down to in Scotland and Kyogo has already proved his mettle in this respect.

His League Cup final heroics against Hibs will be remembered for years to come while he already has five other 'winning' goals this season and a litany of man-of-the-match awards.

There are, of course, still three trophies left to fight for this campaign but you get the feeling Kyogo will be pivotal to Celtic's hopes of lifting all of them; the team have only a 50 per cent win rate when Kyogo has been missing this term while it's 77 per cent when he's available.

It feels apt here to leave the last word to the man responsible for Kyogo's move to Scotland...

"Bringing somebody in from the other side of the world, I don’t think anyone would’ve said he’d have been a cast-iron guarantee to be a hit," Postecoglou said earlier this season.

"But I knew he’d be a fantastic player. And he’s an even better person."

Plenty of goals, a legion of new admirers, a trophy in his back pocket before Christmas and no signs of slowing down. Kyogo is not just Celtic's leading man, he's Scottish football's too.