Yang Hyun-jun Shines for Celtic Before Asian Games Departure
Yang Hyun-jun walked off in Paisley with the match ball metaphorically under his arm and a plane ticket in his back pocket.
On a tight, nervy afternoon at The Marbill Coaches Stadium, the 24-year-old South Korean produced the decisive moment, lashing home in the 68th minute to give Celtic a 2-1 win over St Mirren and keep their early-season rhythm intact. The finish was crisp, the move sharp, the assist from Camilo Duran every bit as eye-catching as the goal itself.
For Yang, it felt like a farewell performance. For Martin O’Neill, it felt like a warning of what he is about to lose.
Parting gift from a rising star
Yang now heads off to join the South Korea squad for the Asian Games, and the timing could hardly be worse for Celtic. His Paisley winner was his second goal in as many games, backing up his strike against Aberdeen at Celtic Park the previous Wednesday. This isn’t a player merely filling a jersey; this is a winger shaping games.
His celebration told its own story. Arms outstretched, teammates swarming him, the away end roaring. This is now one of Celtic’s key men, not a fringe figure quietly fighting for minutes.
O’Neill will have to do without him for the midweek trip to Perth to face St Johnstone, the Glasgow Derby double header against Rangers, and the Europa League opener at home to Hungarian runners-up Ferencvaros. That is a brutal stretch of fixtures to navigate without a player who has suddenly become central to Celtic’s attacking identity.
The blow is obvious. So is the progress.
Left flank locked down
Yang looks completely at home on the left-hand side now. He drives at full-backs, commits defenders, and has started to marry his trickery with end product. On the opposite flank, Haissem Hassan offers balance, hugging the right touchline and stretching the pitch, even if the Egyptian is still waiting for his own numbers to catch up with his performances.
Celtic can afford to be patient with Hassan. They can’t be anything but anxious about losing Yang, not when his form has spiked like this.
His goal against St Mirren summed up where he is in his development: confident, decisive, ruthless. The kind of finish that, a year ago, few would have expected from him on a consistent basis. Now, when he cuts inside or darts in behind, there’s a sense something is coming.
Those instincts, that swagger, will be badly missed in Perth, in the derby cauldron, and on a European night where Celtic will want to plant a flag early in their group.
From £3m afterthought to £25m conversation
The transformation under O’Neill has been stark. Twelve months ago, Yang was close to the exit door, a £3m move to Birmingham City lined up before Celtic’s chaotic 2025 summer window collapsed under its own failings. At the time, few inside or outside the club were losing sleep over the prospect of him leaving.
Now? Different world.
It is hard to name another recent Celtic player who has improved this dramatically in such a short space of time. Yang has fought his way from nearly being sold to becoming a first-team fixture, a winger trusted in tight games, a forward whose omission now feels unthinkable.
That shift in status says plenty about him. It says just as much about O’Neill’s ability to refine raw talent and build a system that lets it breathe.
If this trajectory continues through the season, the conversation changes again. The talk won’t be about £3m escape routes to the English Championship. It will be about Premier League or continental bids in the £25m bracket and beyond. Clubs are always watching, and players who decide title races and European nights tend not to stay under the radar for long.
Enjoy it while it lasts
For now, though, Celtic are simply trying to savour what they have before he disappears for a crucial spell.
The irony is sharp: a player once deemed expendable now leaves a hole that looks impossible to patch perfectly. The team that almost cashed in on him now has to figure out how to cope without him, just as he has become one of their most reliable match-winners.
Yang Hyun-jun has turned himself into a cornerstone of this Celtic side. The next few weeks will show just how strong the structure is without him – and just how high his value might climb when he returns.
