Daizen Maeda Joins Ipswich Town as Celtic Chapter Ends
Ipswich Town have made their statement signing. Daizen Maeda, the relentless forward who ran himself into Celtic folklore, has arrived at Portman Road on a three-year deal, joining the Premier League newcomers from the Scottish champions in a move reported to be worth around £10m.
For Maeda, 28, this is the realisation of a long-held ambition.
“I have always dreamed of playing in the Premier League and I am very happy I can realise that dream with this club,” he told Ipswich’s website, outlining a simple plan for his new audience: battle, goals, assists, and an iron guarantee that he will “always run and give everything”.
From unknown J-League flyer to Celtic mainstay
When Celtic brought Maeda in from Yokohama F Marinos in late December 2022, initially on loan, he arrived as a relatively obscure J-League attacker, one of Ange Postecoglou’s early, calculated gambles.
Nobody foresaw just how much he would squeeze out of his four-and-a-half years in Glasgow.
The numbers alone are weighty:
- 79 goals in 212 appearances.
- Five league titles.
- Three Scottish Cups.
- Two League Cups.
Yet the statistics only tell part of the story. Maeda became a symbol of Celtic’s ferocious front-foot style, his pace and stamina turning games, his pressing setting the tone. The 2025-26 campaign, in particular, elevated him from hard-working forward to decisive match-winner.
With Kyogo Furuhashi not adequately replaced through the middle, Celtic turned to Maeda as their central striker for almost the entire season. It did not click straight away. He toiled through a barren spell of one goal in 18 games, while Celtic slipped behind Hearts in the title race.
Then everything changed.
The season that defined him
Under pressure, Maeda erupted. Seven goals in five Premiership matches. Two of them winners. Each one dragging Celtic back towards the summit.
The defining moment came on the final day, at a packed and anxious Celtic Park. Hearts were level at 1-1, the title still in the balance, the tension suffocating. On 87 minutes, Maeda found the space and the nerve, driving the ball beyond Alexander Schwolow to ignite the stadium and tilt the championship back towards green and white. That second goal in the decider will live with supporters for a generation.
He signed off in fitting fashion. In his final game for the club, the Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline Athletic, Maeda opened the scoring in a comfortable victory, one last contribution on a big stage before the curtain fell on his Celtic career.
The club’s farewell message captured the mood.
“His relentless energy and vital goals were an essential part of the team over the past four-and-a-half years, and he was a firm favourite with Celtic fans,” read the statement, thanking him and wishing him well at Ipswich.
Maeda himself called his time in Glasgow “the most special chapter” of his career and his life, describing it as “an incredible honour” to wear the badge and play in front of “the best supporters in the world”, before signing off with a simple message of gratitude: “Thank you for standing by me through every high and low.”
World Cup pedigree, Premier League stage
Maeda does not arrive in England as a gamble or a prospect. He comes as a seasoned international who featured for Japan at the 2026 World Cup, helping his country into the last 32 before they fell to Brazil. His work-rate and tactical discipline have long made him a manager’s dream; his recent scoring bursts show he can shoulder responsibility when the stakes rise.
Ipswich, back in the top flight after finishing second in the Championship under Kieran McKenna last season, are reshaping themselves for the step up. Gary O’Neil, who replaced McKenna in the summer, sees Maeda as a cornerstone of that evolution.
“He works extremely hard and has impressive physical attributes, while also proving over a number of years playing in Scotland that he has the ability to score goals and create for his team,” O’Neil said, calling him “a valuable member” of the squad in waiting.
Building a Premier League squad
Maeda is not arriving alone. Ipswich have been busy.
Defender Issa Diop, winger Abdul Fatawu, striker Emersonn and goalkeeper Kayne van Oevelen have all been added to a group that already showed cohesion and resilience in the Championship. Cedric Kipre and Chuba Akpom, key figures on loan last season, have signed permanently, preserving the spine that powered promotion.
Into that structure steps Maeda, a forward who brings more than just goals. He presses from the front, stretches defences, and drags team-mates up the pitch with his running. For a newly promoted side that will spend long spells without the ball, that profile is priceless.
Celtic fans may feel a pang watching him go, but there is also a sense of a journey completed. A relatively unknown J-League attacker walked into Glasgow and left as a multi-title winner, a cup final scorer, a man whose late strike sealed a championship on the final day.
Now he walks into a different kind of storm: the Premier League, with its unforgiving tempo and global glare.
Ipswich have their runner, their presser, their big-game scorer. The question now is simple: how far can Daizen Maeda take them in a league he has spent his career chasing?
