Celtic targeting move for “promising” £2m star

It’s already been a busy summer at Celtic, so how many more signings will they make?

On Friday, Benjamin Nygren was presented at Parkhead, arriving from Nordsjælland for a reported fee of £1.3m.

He is the club’s third summer edition, after Ross Doohan and Kieran Tierney, but are the Hoops in the market for another full-back, one that Nygren would enjoy playing alongside?

Celtic’s left-back latest

Greg Taylor’s contract at Celtic officially expires on Tuesday, and his six-year stay in Glasgow will come to an end, with Fabrizio Romano reporting that he has ‘agreed’ to join Greek Super League side PAOK Thessaloniki on a Bosman.

During his time at the club, Taylor made 216 appearances, 199 of which were starts, and was the undisputed first-choice left-back the vast majority of the time.

Taylor arrived from Kilmarnock to replace Tierney in 2019, the inverse is the case this time round but, with the returning hero infamously injury-prone, Brendan Rodgers will need a more than competent deputy.

Thus, as reported by Mark Pirie of the Daily Record, Keita Kosugi – who is valued at £2m by Football Transfers – is their first-choice target, with Celtic touted to sign him.

Sportbladet have previously documented Paris Saint-Germain’s interest in the full-back, while Djurgården’s sporting director Bosse Andersson told the same Swedish outlet that Kosugi will only be allowed to leave for “quite a lot of money”.

Nevertheless, this looks like a deal Celtic could get done.

How Keita Kosugi would improve Celtic

Just 19 years old, Kosugi joined Djurgården in March 2024, following a successful trial with the Stockholm-based side, and these are his statistics for the club so far.

As the table outlines, from the moment he arrived, the Japanese teenager has been a first-choice starter for Djurgården, a key figure in the team that reached last season’s Conference League semi-finals, scoring against Víkingur Reykjavík and Rapid Wien en route.

Scout Elijah Michiels describes his performances as “excellent”, praising his “crossing abilities….great overlapping runs and fast acceleration”.

So, let’s take a look at his statistics from last year’s Conference League.

As the table outlines, Kosugi ranked highly for a wide variety of metrics in last season’s Conference League.

This includes defensive statistics, tackles and blocks, but also progressive carries, emphasising his attacking capabilities.

Han June of Football Asian labels him “one of Asia’s hottest young prospects”, outlining his “fearless defending”, while Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout notes that ‘pace…work rate and technique’ are his primary attributes, all of which make Kosugi ”a modern defender’.

Meantime, writer Kai Watson notes that he is a “promising attacking threat”, which could see him link up well with new arrival Nygren down the left-hand side. The latter man scored 16 goals in 2024/25, with four of those coming from just eight outings on the left wing.

The Swede, who is capable of operating on either flank, would surely thrive with a dynamic, overlapping full-back in support, meaning, should Kosugi arrive, he could form an unstoppable partnership with his fellow new recruit.

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