Ipswich Town Signs Daizen Maeda from Celtic: A New Chapter

Ipswich Town have made a statement in their first summer back among the elite, prising Daizen Maeda from Celtic on a three-year deal that underlines both their ambition and their manager’s intent.

The fee, understood to be around £10m, brings a World Cup forward to Portman Road. At 28, Maeda arrives in the Premier League at his peak, fresh from helping Japan reach the last 32 at the 2026 World Cup before their exit to Brazil.

For Ipswich, this is not a vanity signing. It is a signing with a clear identity.

“I have always dreamed of playing in the Premier League and I am very happy I can realise that dream with this club,” Maeda told Ipswich’s website.

The words fit the narrative, but the numbers back it up: 79 goals in 212 appearances for Celtic, five league titles, three Scottish Cups, two League Cups. A relentless runner with medals to show for it.

A new weapon for O’Neil

Gary O’Neil, appointed in the summer after Kieran McKenna’s departure, inherits a promoted squad that finished second in the Championship. He has wasted little time reshaping it in his own image.

“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. That is the blueprint: intensity, physicality, end product.

Maeda slots into a busy recruitment drive. Ipswich have already brought in defender Issa Diop, winger Abdul Fatawu, striker Emersonn and goalkeeper Kayne van Oevelen. Cedric Kipre and Chuba Akpom, influential on loan last season, have been tied down permanently.

This is not tinkering. It is a full Premier League refit, with Maeda expected to set the tone from the front.

From unknown in Glasgow to Celtic hero

His departure closes one of the most successful – and perhaps initially unlikely – modern Celtic stories.

When Maeda arrived from Yokohama F. Marinos in late December 2022, on loan in the early days of the Ange Postecoglou era, he was a relatively unknown J-League attacker. He did not stay unknown for long. His loan became permanent the following summer, and his pace and work rate quickly turned him into a fixture.

Celtic fans will remember many sprints, many presses, many goals. One season stands above the rest.

The 2025-26 campaign defined him. Celtic had failed to adequately replace Kyogo Furuhashi through the middle, so Maeda was asked to carry the burden as a central striker for almost the entire season. At first, it looked a step too far. One goal in 18 games. Celtic second in the table. Hearts on top and threatening to stay there.

Then everything flipped.

Maeda caught fire when the pressure was at its highest. Seven goals in five Premiership matches, two of them decisive winners. He dragged Celtic back into the title race almost by force of will.

The defining moment came on the final day. Celtic, at home to Hearts, level at 1-1 with the title on the line and the clock ticking into the 87th minute. Maeda found the gap, took the chance, and drove his shot beyond Alexander Schwolow. Celtic Park erupted. The goal will sit in the club’s modern folklore for years.

He did not fade after that either. In his final appearance for the club, he opened the scoring in a comfortable Scottish Cup final win over Dunfermline Athletic, leaving with another trophy and another big-game contribution.

Farewell to a favourite

Maeda’s goodbye to Celtic carried the weight of those years. In a message to the “Celtic family” on social media, he called the last four and a half years “the most special chapter” of his career and his life.

“It has been an incredible honour to wear this badge, to play for this amazing club, and to share so many unforgettable moments with my teammates, the staff, and the best supporters in the world,” he wrote, thanking fans for standing by him “through every high and low”.

Celtic’s response was just as warm. The club hailed his “relentless energy and vital goals” and acknowledged his status as a firm favourite with supporters. They wished him well as he heads “on to pastures new at Ipswich Town”.

For Celtic, it is the end of an era defined by a tireless forward who never stopped running. For Ipswich, it is the start of something else entirely.

A newly promoted side, a demanding league, a manager building a squad in his own image – and now a Japanese international whose game is built on intensity, movement and moments on the biggest stages.

Portman Road will soon find out whether Maeda’s story in England can match the one he wrote in Glasgow.