Celtic may have to live without Daizen Maeda next season, but his contribution to the club will never be forgotten, particularly during this season’s Premiership run-in.
The forward struggled for much of this campaign. Before his goal against St Mirren in the Scottish Cup semi-final, he hadn’t found the back of the net since January. Then something clicked.
Maeda then followed it up with two goals and an assist in Celtic’s first post-split match against Falkirk. All of a sudden, he was playing with a newfound confidence.
He would then score a further five, including THAT audacious overhead kick against Rangers. But the most important goal he scored in his Celtic career came in the 87th minute in the title decider against Hearts.
Celebrations were cut short due to an offside check, but once the goal was given, the outpouring of emotions showed just how much it meant to him.
A statistic has emerged detailing how incredible his late surge of form was. Via scotlands_coefficient on Instagram, a graphic shows that Maeda is just the fourth player to score in all five post-split fixtures since the split began in the 2000/2001 season.
Not only that, but no player has scored more goals than Maeda (7) within that post-split frame.
Truly a big-game player.
The 28-year-old now has the chance to sign the season off in style this Saturday as the Hoops face Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup final.
For all the drama this season has offered, to potentially conclude the campaign with two trophies would be a brilliant achievement. We have Martin O’Neill and his staff to thank for that.
Saturday could, and likely will, mark the end of Maeda’s four and a half years at Celtic. Five league titles, two League Cups, and two Scottish Cups (hopefully soon three), he will go down as one of our best modern day heroes.
He poses one of the best engines in world football and wears his heart on his sleeve. If he does depart, his next club is lucky to have him.
