Last year, the Hoops gave the prolific center-forward permission to leave Parkhead.

With a less than comfortable 4-2 victory over Livingston at Parkhead on Sunday, Celtic advanced to the SFA Cup semifinals.

The opposition twice threatened to pull even with the Hoops, but late goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda—who was making his 100th appearance for the team in all competitions—sealed the victory.
After Adam Idah missed a penalty against Hearts and failed to score for the second straight game, Brendan Rodgers brought on the Japan international off the bench to score.
The Ireland international has had a great start to life in Glasgow after joining on loan from Norwich City on deadline day of the previous summer transfer window.
However, if Celtic had not pounced on Greek sensation Giorgos Giakoumakis under Ange Postecoglou last year, they might have had an improvement over Idah and the ideal striker for Rodger.

The amount of merchandise sold by Celtic Giakoumakis Giorgos for

In February 2023, the Scottish powerhouses made the decision to let go of the striker, and Atlanta United, an MLS team, quickly moved to acquire his services for a fee of £4.3 million, which included £3.5 million up front.

That occurred less than two years after they agreed to pay VVV-Venlo £2.5 million to sign him in the summer of 2021, Postecoglou’s first transfer window as the club’s manager.

Under the Australian head coach, the Hoops finished 2021–2022 with a Scottish Premiership title, and Giakoumakis was a major contributor to that victory.

Despite playing in just 11 of the club’s 21 top-flight appearances as a starter, he amassed an impressive 13 goals and one assist. With 12 goals, Kyogo finished behind the gifted shooter as the club’s top scorer in the division that season.

After being praised as “underrated” by journalist Josh Bunting, Giakoumakis struggled to get playing time the next season because Kyogo was unstoppable, scoring 27 goals in 31 league starts for Celtic.

Due to the Japanese forward’s outstanding play, the Greek international was only able to make 15 appearances overall and four starts in the top flight. Even so, before moving to Atlanta for £4.3 million, he managed to score six goals and provide an assist in that period of time.

As a result, Giakoumakis finished his Celtic career with an incredible 19 goals and 2 assists in 15 Premiership starts and 36 total appearances.

With 26 goals in 57 games across all competitions, the 29-year-old ace established himself as a deadly number nine in the box. Since joining the Major League Soccer last year, his goal-scoring prowess has been evident.

Atlanta United’s Giorgos Giakoumakis’s MLS statistics

After joining from the Hoops in February 2023 for £4.3 million, there might have been a notion that Giakoumakis would succeed immediately in America.

They may not have anticipated it to go as well as it has, though, given how prolific the outstanding number nine has been in the Major League Soccer.

The Greek international scored an incredible 19 goals in 24 starts, or one every 108 minutes on average, as the table above illustrates.

Just to give you an idea of how deadly the former Celtic striker is in front of goal, 19 goals from an xG of 14.82. Because of his merciless finishing inside the box, he rarely lets up a good chance to find the back of the net.

Giakoumakis has also had an incredible start to the 2023 Major League Soccer season. The explosive forward scored a hat-trick against New England over the weekend, giving him three goals (1.75 xG) in his last two games.

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