What a difference a year makes for the first TCW Star Man of this campaign.

This time last year, he found himself on the bench for the opening game of the season versus Ross County, with the returning manager Brendan Rodgers electing to play David Turnbull over yesterday’s star player.

How the tables have turned in that time. It will be of no surprise to anyone who watched Celtic’s Flag Day victory versus Kilmarnock that this man has managed to scoop up the first star-showing award for his exploits vs Derek McInnes’ Europe-chasing team. Of course, that player is Reo Hatate, whose spellbinding performance yesterday seems to have put the rest of Scottish football on notice.

It is no secret at the moment that all of the chatter in Celtic’s midfield has been directed towards Matt O’Riley, who also put in a good performance at home on Sunday afternoon/evening. The captain Callum McGregor was also as solid as you would expect, but the real star of the show was the Japan international, who was on top form performance-wise from start to finish.

Indeed, Hatate was in no mood to hang around, as he would score Celtic’s first competitive goal of the 2024/25 season in the 17th minute. Following a messy passage of play from Kilmarnock at the edge of their box, the ball fell to Greg Taylor, who stabbed a pass in the direction of Celtic’s number 41. Taking the ball in his strike, Hatate took a touch before deftly striking the ball past Robby McCrorie, who did manage to get a slight touch on the shot. Even still, the midfielder’s quick thinking took the former Rangers goalkeeper by surprise, which made all the difference in the concession of the goal from Kilmarnock’s perspective.

It was not just his goal that set him apart from other good performers like O’Riley, Nicolas Kuhn or the two centre-backs, but the way he carried himself in the middle of the park. At points, he was telling players such as Taylor where he wanted to receive the ball, as well as moving constantly to get into dangerous pockets in and around the opposition’s goal. This was the Rodgers version of Hatate, and around 60,000 adoring supporters got to see it in all of its glory.

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His delighted manager did not hold back in his praise of the standout player yesterday afternoon, reminiscing back to last year to highlight just how far the 26-year-old has come under his management. Rodgers said: “I never saw the player that I hoped to see at the beginning of last season, for whatever reason.

“I was aware of him, and I’d seen him play and liked what I’ve seen, but he never really got going through pre-season last year, not to what I was wanting. And then he gets injured and then it was really broken for him, and he had little spells where he came into the team but not consistently.

“He knows I like him as a player and he knows what I want from him as a player, and what I’ve seen over the course of pre-season, he’s top class. He’s been absolutely brilliant since he’s come back.”

He continued: “For me, it was always about balance between a wonderful, gifted player and taking the ball and how he operates in space.

“It was about keeping the risk in the game because I don’t like midfield players that keep the ball 10 times out of 10. It’s no good. But there are areas of the pitch in which to risk it and I think now he really sees the balance in the game between keeping the ball, keeping good concentration, linking the game, but still having the threat.

“And you would have seen that in pre-season. You would have seen it at times in the second half of last season, but now I see a much more complete player.”

With reports linking the midfielder to Leicester City – Rodgers’ former club – Celtic may have a fight on their hands to keep the ultra-talented midfielder at the club that brought him over to Europe from the J1 League just under three years ago. Showing maturity on both ends of the pitch, Hatate looks like a player at the very top of his game, who has transferred his good form from pre-season to competitive action seamlessly.

Hatate is a complete joy to watch in the flesh when fit and firing. Here’s hoping we all can continue to marvel at his technical brilliance for another season at least. A well-deserved recipient of The Celtic Way’s Star Man award for matchday one.