Celtic agree £850,000 fee with midfield dynamo formerly at Leeds

Yosuke Ideguchi Japan December 2019

Celtic have agreed a fee of around £850,000 with Japanese side Gamba Osaka for midfielder Yosuke Ideguchi, claims a source in Japan.

Yahoo Japan claim Celtic have an agreement in place with Osaka, who joined Leeds in 2018. Osaka though never made an appearance for the West Yorkshire club – at a time when they were in the Championship. Instead the Whites loaned him t0  Cultural Leonesa in Spain and then Greuther Furth in Germany.

Ideguchi returned to J-League outfit Gamba Osaka for an undisclosed fee in August 2019. And now Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has made a move for the player, who is expected to fly to Scotland before the end of the month.

The 25-year-old will have a medical in Glasgow and in the meantime the Hoops will work on a visa and work permit for the midfielder.

Ideguchi has made 29 appearances this season and forced his way back into his national squad in 2019.

He has not added to his 15 caps since December 2019, but he will be hoping a move to Europe can lift him back into the reckoning ahead of next year.

Ideguchi energetic style and “ability to capture the ball” helped Osaka remain in the J-League with a 13th-placed finish.

Sky Sports have claimed Celtic are tracking three Japanese players, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Ideguchi.


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Jota injury timeline

Meanwhile, Portuguese winger Jota looks set to be sidelined through the busy festive season.

 

Jota was forced off against Hearts with a hamstring problem. And he now looks set to miss the League Cup final against Hibernian as well as the derby with Rangers.

Postecoglou told Sky Sports: “He won’t be right for the cup final.

“It’s going to be three-four weeks recovery depending how he goes. So if you look at timelines it gets pretty tight for between now and the break.”

Jota’s absence will be a huge blow because he has been one of the standout performers in Postecoglou’s side this season.