CELTIC HAVE SECURED Jota on a five-and-a-half-year contract after the Portuguese winger swapped places with Kyogo Furuhashi.
The 25-year-old has completed his move from Rennes 18 months after leaving Celtic in a reported €28 million move to Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad.
Jota’s return was confirmed less than an hour before Rennes announced the signing of Furuhashi.
🇵🇹 🍀 pic.twitter.com/2TpecLlHdG
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) January 27, 2025
“The best thing in Glasgow, besides Celtic obviously, is the people and I feel like I need a place with soul, where I feel at home. This is definitely something I was looking for, and I think there is no better match than Celtic.
“The last year-and-a-half has had its ups and downs, but that’s life and that’s how football is. Now I just can’t wait to work hard, to get along with the lads again and just to flow.”
We can confirm that Kyogo has joined French Ligue 1 side, Stade Rennais FC. Everyone at #CelticFC would like to thank Kyogo for his amazing contribution to the club.
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) January 27, 2025
Forever a Celtic Icon. Best of luck and thank you, Kyogo 🍀🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/UNwxQiWihi
Japanese striker Furuhashi departed after hitting 85 goals for Celtic following his arrival in the summer of 2021.
The 30-year-old told his new club’s website: “After some great years with Celtic, I was looking for a new challenge in a recognised league. Physically and technically, the league is very competitive.”
I expect there are a lot of very unhappy people in the IRFU.
@kieran horgan: Why?
@kieran horgan: don’t think so, he served us well and handed over to a very highly regarded David Humphries
@kieran horgan: A stronger Scotland is good for Irish and International rugb overall. He achieved alot of his goals for the IRFU, if also polarising some sections of the rugby community along the way.
Very different landscape for Nucifora in Scotland compared to when he arrived in Ireland first. Most of the ingredients were already there, he honed in on the areas that needed focus for ultimate success at international level. Scotland do not have a schools pathway and tbeir youth development will take a generation or more to bear fruit. I hope that his performance won’t be judged over 2 years, because if that’s going to be the case, he is likely to enhance the SQ Pathway moreso than the development of structures at home to eventually produce international quality players. Maybe that is what SRU will be asking for… he did a pretty decent job of it in Ireland but I’m not sure Ireland would field a competitive team of IQ Pathway only players.
@Paul Ennis: one of the things he brought in or reinforced in Ireland was the the unwritten rule of playing in Ireland to represent Ireland. It’ll be interesting to see if he goes down a similar road with Scotland. Maybe we je fact that they’ve only 2 teams will mitigate against that.
@Paul Ennis: Well said, Ireland’s success has many factors.
@Michael Corkery: Pretty sure the rule already existed already with a caveat for established international such as Tommy Bowe and Johnny Sexton. I don’t think any other exceptions were made. Nucifora arrived in 2013 and I think the IRFU had already decided that 1. They wouldn’t cock up the contract negotiations for their most important player ever again and 2. JS would be the last player to play for Ireland whilst contracted abroad. Scotland cannot play international rugby without their Prem or Top 14 players. The upside for them is that someone else pays their wages. The Irish system works for Ireland but will not necessarily work for Scotland… just like we vannot try to copy SA, France or England. Nucifora’s needs to identify the route to Scotland’s (relative) success.
How did he do 10 months for Rugby Australia, his IRFU contracts ran untill the Olympics were over?
@Kingshu: I seem to remember that the IRFU give him permission to work part time for the ARU after the world cup? I might be wrong.
RA must be some outfit? To get a guy of this calibre go was a monumental f up. They’re a complete mess and JS ain’t going to fix it.
@Noel Lynn: that was my first thought. What a screw up by RA. His work was done in Ireland and there is no regrets on either side how that worked out.
@Noel Lynn: From the BBC site it mentions both positions (Scotland and RA) are part-time. For such an important role you’d think it would be permanent for either country, especially RA as he wanted to return to Australia?
@Con Cussed: He finishes with Australia in November.
Can we get a few pre season run downs/analysis etc? It’s like a barren landscape out here.
@Thesaltyurchin: Murray hibernates in the summer every two years.
@Justin Robinson: I’m refreshing every day in the hope of some preseason coverage from teh team!