CU Top 10 - No1...Daizen Maeda

Andrew H profiles your choice as player of the year 2024/25

Even a mantle place the length of the Forth Bridge would struggle not to heave under the weight of all the player of the year awards Daizen Maeda has hoovered up for his phenomenal exploits across the 2024-25 season. Calling to mind the line from Bobby Lennox when he reflected on Celtic sweeping all before them in 1967. “If we had entered the Grand National, we would have won that too.” Of course, you voted the man and the marvel that is Maeda as the club’s peerless performance.

Maeda seemed to undergo a transformation before our eyes. From endurance runner with potency to an absolute thoroughbred – ending up the best player in the country by a distance. Both his figures and finesse became as eye-popping as his fitness levels with which he has pressed the life out of Celtic opponents over his three-and-a-half years in Scotland. Between February and April, his displays – and the deadliness of them – were seriously giving off peak Henrik Larsson vibes. A monumental 18 goals in only 15 games and the course of 10 weeks. Maeda then wasn’t so much on fire as a molten lava footballer. Included in this haul came his strike against Bayern Munich that accounted for Celtic pushing the Germans all the way in their Champions League last 16 play-off. A goal that made him the first player from the club to score four times in a single season in the competition in two decades. In all, his 33 goal haul and 12 assists don’t do justice to the magnificence of his contribution.