Is Daizen Maeda About to Emulate Matt O’Riley?

Celtic winger Daizen Maeda continued his impressive recent form with a goal last night against Bayern Munich at Celtic Park. Over the past couple of months, Maeda has reached a whole new level at the Hoops.

Since joining in January 2022, Daizen Maeda has been incredibly impressive, consistently contributing for Celtic. This season, under Brendan Rodgers, however, he has reached new heights with goals and assists more consistently.

Maeda is now arguably Celtic’s most consistent goal threat, no matter where he plays, having scored from the left wing, right wing, and up top in Kyogo’s absence. This has led to early calls that he could clean sweep the Celtic Player of the Year awards, much like Matt O’Riley did last year.

With O’Riley winning Men’s Player of the Year, Men’s Players’ Player of the Year, and Young Player of the Year, there’s growing speculation that Daizen Maeda could also take home multiple awards this season. Maeda has a real chance at also claiming Top Goalscorer and Men’s Goal of the Season, particularly after his recent stunning chip against Dundee at Celtic Park.

O’Riley was a standout last season for Celtic, scoring big goals in crucial moments, which eventually led to a summer move to Brighton for a club-record transfer fee.

Maeda revealed at last year’s awards that he voted for the Danish midfielder for Player’s Player of the Year, joking that he did so because, in his words, O’Riley is ‘very handsome’.

But if someone has a spare £25 million, all bets would be off for Maeda.

However, for the time being, Celtic supporters will enjoy a sensational player who, at 27, is in his prime—something that Hoops faithful don’t always get to witness, as players often leave early due to Celtic being scouted by Europe’s elite.

Maeda is the exception, and as he showed last night against Bayern Munich, he is now one of the most in-form players in Europe, with a real chance of winning several awards at the Celtic Player of the Year awards at the end of the season.

The Japanese forward has gone from a player who aspects of his game were doubted, just like O’Riley’s, to now being the real deal on a consistent basis.