Daizen Maeda is heading to the Premier League. The 28-year-old Japanese striker is set to undergo a medical with Ipswich Town, with the two clubs having agreed a deal worth £10 million to bring his three-and-a-half-year stint at Celtic to a close.
The structure breaks down as £8 million upfront, with a further £2 million in performance-related add-ons. For a player with one year left on his contract, Celtic did reasonably well to extract that kind of fee.
What the numbers say
Maeda’s Celtic record is genuinely impressive. Seventy-nine goals in 212 appearances over 3.5 seasons puts him in the upper tier of attackers the Scottish Premiership has seen in recent memory.
The timing of this deal is notable. Maeda did not return to Celtic’s pre-season training camp following Japan’s World Cup campaign. With only one year remaining on his deal at Parkhead, Celtic faced a straightforward calculation: sell now at a reasonable price, or risk losing him for nothing in twelve months. The £10 million fee they’ve negotiated is a sensible outcome given that leverage.
