Kyogo Furuhashi's Struggles at Birmingham: Is There Hope for Redemption?
When Birmingham City prised Kyogo Furuhashi away from Celtic in the summer of 2025, it felt like a statement. Eighty-five goals in 165 games for the Glasgow giants, Champions League minutes in his legs, movement that shredded defences in Scotland – this was supposed to be the marquee forward to spearhead a promotion push.
Instead, it has become a cautionary tale.
The Japanese striker arrived at St Andrew’s with the kind of pedigree rarely seen in the Championship. Supporters pictured him dovetailing with Jay Stansfield, buzzing around centre-backs, turning half-chances into goals and St Andrew’s into a ground visiting defenders dreaded. On paper, it made sense. On grass, it never caught fire.
Kyogo stumbled from the start. The sharpness that defined his Celtic years never quite appeared in royal blue. He snatched at finishes, mistimed runs, and the early goals that might have settled him simply didn’t come. One league goal tells its own brutal story. By the time a long-standing shoulder problem forced him under the knife and ended his season early, the dream had already curdled.
Former Blues midfielder Curtis Morrison, watching the unravel from the outside, struggled to make sense of it.
“I can't believe why it's not working because at Celtic his movement and the chances and the goals he was scoring were fantastic,” he told GOAL, speaking in association with Freebets.com. At Birmingham, the chances were there too. The net wasn’t.
That, for Morrison, is the heart of the issue. The work rate stayed high. The pressing, the running, the effort – all present, all honest. But a No.9 lives and dies by goals.
“That's just a player short on confidence and it hasn't really worked out,” he said. “His work rate's fantastic but you've got to have a bit more than work rate when you're a number nine. You need to score goals and he was getting opportunities and he was just rushing at them.”
The pressure told early. A couple of those “gilt‑edge” chances go in during the opening weeks and the whole narrative looks different. Instead, each miss seemed to tighten the screws.
“I think if he had started there in his first few games and started scoring a lot of goals as a centre-forward, his confidence would have just gone back through the roof and he would have scored a lot of goals, but he hasn't been anywhere near it,” Morrison added.
That sliding-doors start has left Birmingham with a dilemma. Kyogo is not a cheap squad player. He arrived as a headliner, on headliner wages. Now the club must decide whether this was a one-off, confidence-shredded campaign or the sign of a deeper mismatch between player and league.
“That's a player they could move on because he's on big money and they try to see if they can get some money for him,” Morrison admitted. “Or do they stick with him and say, ‘this season could be your season and we don't have to spend money because he should be scoring goals in the Championship’.”
He has, after all, proved he can score in a top-flight environment. The Scottish Premiership may differ from the Championship in style and intensity, but 85 goals are not an accident. Somewhere inside the 31-year-old is still the penalty-box predator who lit up Celtic Park.
“He scored goals in the Scottish Premiership, so it's a difficult one,” Morrison said. “I hope he stays and I hope next season is his season, but you never know at Birmingham City because they have money - they can bring in players and move players on.”
That financial muscle shapes the conversation. Birmingham are no longer scrambling in the bargain bin. If a big earner fails to deliver, the temptation is to cut ties quickly and reinvest, rather than wait for a revival that might never come.
EFL pundit Don Goodman has seen plenty of Kyogo and watched the confidence seep away almost in real time.
“He started missing real gilt-edge chances in those first six, eight games and you could slowly but surely just see the confidence drain away from him,” he previously told GOAL. The movement stayed bright, the energy remained, but the finish deserted him.
“In terms of value for money, it's gone horribly wrong with regard to that particular transfer. And it's surprising, really. I like his movement. He's energetic, he's quick. But he didn't look like he could hit a barn door, if I'm honest with you, after a difficult start.”
That is the brutal verdict on a transfer that once looked like a coup. The numbers say “nightmare”. The eye test says “lost confidence”. The wage bill says “decision time”.
Birmingham now stand at a fork in the road. Cash in and admit the gamble failed, or double down and trust that a fully fit, mentally reset Kyogo can finally bring his Celtic form across the border.
For a club with money, patience is often in shorter supply than options.
