Reo Hatate’s Humble Retirement Plans

REO HATATE has already made his mark at Celtic this season. Bursting onto the scene back in January, the Japanese midfielder hit the ground running for the bhoys.

In recent times, I don’t think it’s disrespectful to point out the player looks a bit leggy and tired. It’s very understandable considering Reo played a full J-League season and had very little time off before he played his first game for Celtic. Travelling to international duty back and forth will have also had an effect.

Ange believes there’s more to come from Reo and we’d find it hard to argue that point after seeing what he can do.

Hatate is a humble guy and admits he never thought he’d get to the level he’s at with Celtic right now and being in and around the national team.

The Celtic star has spoken about his rise, his determination through Uni and where he wants to end up when his football career is all said and done. You’d be surprised what Reo wants to do when he retires.

As quoted by the Scotsman, Reo said: “For four years of university, I had to study a lot as well as training hard to try and become a professional football player. It wasn’t easy for me at that time. Because I had to have a lot of discipline. But it was a great experience for me. I had already dreamt about becoming a football player before going to University. That was my ambition even at high school.

“After going to university, I started to have a clear vision of exactly what I wanted to do and which team I wanted to play for. It was my goal and objective to do well in my career [though] I didn’t think I’d play at such a high level, for Celtic and for the national team. I’m not sure [though] if I’ll be a physical education teacher when I stop playing. But I think I will definitely open my own coffee shop…”

A man after my own heart!

All the Japanese based players who’ve come in have been brilliant.

As Ange made clear, they’re all different, they all bring separate positive traits to the table. Maeda hasn’t stopped running since he got here, we all know Kyogo’s worth to the team and I’m sure Ideguchi will show us what he’s got over time.