Emotional Kyogo has revealed he quit Celtic to move to Ligue 1 so he could secure a World Cup spot.
Celtic surprisingly sold the Japanese ace last month in a shock £10million deal to Rennes – and failed to sign a replacement He made his debut at the weekend in a 1-0 win over Strasbourg. Kyogo has twice suffered international heartbreak at Celtic when he was snubbed for both the World Cup in 2022 and the Asian Cup after that. He was recalled last year, however.
And he’s told media in his homeland that he is desperate to reach the next World Cup in Canada, USA and Mexico next year. He said: “I think that if I can prove my strength here in France by playing every week I will be called up by the national team again and I will be able to show a different side of myself.
“I cannot claim to be called up with certainty, but if he can demonstrate my ability at Rennes, it definitely adds to my chances. I just want to make an impact here and create chances for my teammates. I’m very pleased we won in my opening game. There are a lot of players in France with very high technical abilities and I know I will challenge myself every day.”
Meanwhile, David Strelec looks set to end any hopes the Hoops have of capturing him in the summer after Slovan Bratislava revealed he’s on the brink of a £9m transfer elsewhere.
The Slovakian international was strongly linked with a move to the Scottish champions, but Slovan made it clear they wanted big money for the striker. They were at pains to point out they weren’t going to sell him last week, but have had a change of heart after increasing interest despite their hefty price tag. And Slovan general director Ivan Kmotrik revealed he expects a deal to go through imminently, with plenty of countries including Turkey, Switzerland, Poland and Austria still having their transfer window open.
He said: “I have to say that there is a huge explosion of interest around David, the situation is changing from hour to hour. In the last two days, we have received an enormous number of offers. We are negotiating, discussing this topic, but nothing is closed. So I can’t say yet how it will turn out.
“There are countries where the windows are still open. Negotiations were very close from clubs in a lot of countries. The offers are really too high for us to be able to approach it negatively in any way.”