Kyogo Furuhashi reveals 'honour' of staying at Celtic as striker aims to keep up Hearts scoring record

In July 2021, Hearts managed to sully Kyogo Furuhashi’s competitive debut for Celtic but this season’s top scorer is determined they will not stall the club’s title ambitions when they square up again this weekend.

The clubs have met eight times since Gary Mackay-Steven and John Soutter weighed in to eclipse Anthony Ralston’s goal at Tynecastle that day, and the Japanese forward has featured in six of those matches, scoring in every single one.

And, with this year’s Premiership title - and the second piece of a possible domestic treble - up for grabs on Sunday, the man who has proved himself a constant goal threat would be delighted to contribute yet again.

“I want to enjoy the games,” said Furuhashi. “We still have five games left and we want to enjoy it as much as we did in the past seasons. While I’ve been here at the club, a lot of players have left and a lot of players have come in. I’m honoured to be able to stay at the club and play here. As I said, I want to enjoy this day. I think it’s important not to stick with the idea of winning the titles. We think this is another game in the league. We will prepare and try to win the game.”

Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi during the Scottish Cup semi-final win over Rangers at Hampden Park. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

Sitting on 29 goals for the season, almost 50 in total for his Celtic career, the popular 28-year-old attacker, who is undoubtedly one of the main contenders for Player of the Year, is remaining grounded. “As I always say, everyone is supporting me to get goals. I just work hard to provide something back for them because they support me all the time. Being at this club is an honour already, by scoring the goals I can give something back to the supporters and the club. We always get the win because we are united and work hard for it. ”

Just one league victory away from retaining the Premiership trophy, their triumph over Rangers in last weekend’s Scottish Cup semi final means that only Inverness Caledonian Thistle can then deny them the season’s third major piece of silverware. We will see the results at the end of the season,” said Kyogo, refusing to look beyond this weekend’s trip to the capital. “Every game we work hard and we will see.”