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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Mark Walker

Celtic star Kyogo Furuhashi named in Japan best XI despite World Cup snub

Kyogo Furuhashi has been voted into Japan's best XI for last year by their players' association...despite being snubbed for the World Cup.

The Celtic ace was a surprise omission from the Qatar tournament and was devastated to not make the final squad chosen by manager Hajime Moriyasu.

But he's been handed a huge accolade by his fellow pros after being named in Japan's Team of the Year by the Japanese Professional Football Players Association - the only player chosen who wasn't selected for the World Cup squad.

Japanese PFA chairman Maya Yoshida said: "There are some subtle differences between the players selected by coach Moriyasu and I think it's interesting that the other players chose them objectively."

While Kyogo made the cut, Celtic team-mate Daizen Maeda - who was at the World Cup - was not included in the best XI.

Japan's Team of 2022 was: Daniel Schmidt (Sint-Truiden); Ko Itakura (Borussia Monchengladbach), Wataru Endo (Stuttgart), Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arsenal); Daichi Kamata (Eintracht Frankfurt), Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad), Ritsu Doan (Freiburg), Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton); Takuma Asano (Bochum), Junya Ito (Reims), Kyogo Furuhashi (Celtic).

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