Yang Hyun-jun's Transformation at Celtic: From Fringe Player to Key Asset
Yang Hyun-jun walked off the pitch in Paisley with the look of a player who knows his value. A few months ago, he was almost walking out of Celtic for good.
Back in January, the South Korean winger seemed on the brink of a move to Birmingham City. His Celtic career looked like it might be over before it had truly begun. Then the landscape shifted. Martin O'Neill returned for a second spell in charge, Yang stayed put, and everything changed.
Since then, he has gone from fringe option to one of the Scottish champions’ most important attacking weapons.
From nearly gone to indispensable
O'Neill’s return coincided with Yang’s rise. The 24-year-old finished last season with 10 goals and three assists, numbers that only tell part of the story. He scored big goals, in big moments, as Celtic drove towards a league and cup double. When the pressure rose, Yang kept demanding the ball out wide, stretching games, forcing defenders into mistakes.
By the time the season ended, any talk of him leaving had evaporated. His new contract in the summer felt inevitable, not generous. It was a reward, but also a statement: this was now a player Celtic planned to build around.
He has started this campaign as if determined to underline that point.
Yang’s winner at St Mirren on Saturday evening, a sharp, decisive finish in a tight 2-1 victory, was his second goal in four days after he struck in the midweek win over Aberdeen. Two goals already this season, plus an assist, from seven games. The numbers are tidy. The timing of his contributions has been crucial.
No one inside the Celtic dressing room needs convincing.
“He is a really important part of the team,” captain Callum McGregor told Sky Sports after the win in Paisley. “He's a big player to miss, but obviously we wish him the best.”
Celtic’s width, Yang’s stage
O'Neill has leaned heavily on width in this version of Celtic. The ball goes wide early, full-backs overlap, wingers are asked to be brave and direct. In that system, Yang is tailor-made.
On the left, he hugs the touchline, then suddenly darts inside. He drags full-backs out of shape, opens lanes for runners, and gives Celtic a constant out-ball when games get scrappy. With his current form, he would be the automatic pick on that flank for the coming run of fixtures.
Except he won’t be there.
Yang now heads off to the Asian Games, where South Korea will face Qatar and Saudi Arabia in Japan later this month. For Celtic, the timing is brutal. For Yang, it is an honour he was never going to turn down.
The champions must now do without one of their most in-form players for four matches.
A tough stretch without him
Those four games are not the sort a manager wants to tackle short-handed out wide. Celtic go to St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership, then face a trip across the city to meet Rangers in the League Cup quarter-finals. After that comes a home Europa League tie against Ferencvaros, followed by an Old Firm derby at Celtic Park in the league.
These are the fixtures that shape a season, the kind that define mood, momentum and, often, silverware. Yang has played his way into being the kind of player you expect to see in all of them.
Now Celtic must find a way to cope without his direct running, his end product, and the balance he brings to their attack.
For a footballer who almost slipped quietly out of Glasgow in January, it is quite the transformation. The question now is not whether Celtic can afford to keep Yang Hyun-jun.
It is how they handle the weeks when they cannot call on him at all.
