Had Daizen Maeda excelled at an alternative sporting discipline, you would have been forgiven for assuming that it might be something in the athletics realm, with his explosive sprinting power and seemingly boundless reserves of energy sure to offer a smooth transition into just about any track discipline.
It seems though that when the Celtic attacker was younger, the red-hot Maeda’s ambitions were to represent his country in another high-flying sport.
"I wanted to be a gymnast," Maeda said.
"I practiced it a lot. I would look at the Olympics and think I wanted to be there, I wanted to participate in the Olympics. That's why I was practicing so much.
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"[It would be] the boxes. Or the floor and the one with the bars."
When did he realise that he preferred football then?
“I still don't think that football is better!” he laughed.
“I just realised that now I'm a football player.
"I think [knowing] how to use the body has been helpful for me because I'm not really doing anything towards that now. I think the experience in my childhood helps me to move the body better.”
“I'm very happy to receive the award,” he said.
"I think teammates come first and it's because of them I have received this award.
"After that, it's managers, coaches, staff, and also of course my parents. I'm really pleased to receive this award for them.
"Definitely it's been the best season of my career. I understood the importance of constantly doing what I'm doing. It was a great season to understand that part and hopefully I can continue.
"I'm just working on the things I've been working on from the past, and it's just paid off.
“It was beyond expectations. But I've experienced several times in my career where things I've been doing will pay off at the end and that's what I was hoping for, and thankfully it happened this season.”
Maeda has two seasons left on his current contract at Celtic, with manager Brendan Rodgers putting on record his desire to extend that deal further. Maeda though prefers not to look too far ahead.
“This is a world where you never know what’s going to happen next,” he said.
“This a good team but I need to think about what comes next with my family and the gaffer and everything. Now my focus is on this team.
"I'm not thinking [about it] a lot right now because there's still games to play. I'm thinking about how I'll spend my day off! So, we'll just get the games done and then let's see what happens."
“Everyone said we did a great performance in the Champions League but we didn’t go through to the next stage,” he said.
“So, I think there’s something missing in our team. So, for next season I think we should try to go to the next stage.”
In the here and now, Maeda is just grateful for the praise and the prizes that are coming his way, as well as the manner in which he has been taken to the hearts of the Celtic supporters, like several of his compatriots down the years have been too, from Shunsuke Nakamura to Kyogo Furuhashi.
“From the beginning when I joined this club I felt that they were welcoming, especially the Japanese players,” he said.
“I'm very grateful to play under such circumstances.
“I really think that having the Japanese players in this team will strengthen the levels of the team and improve the technique of the team. So, I hope there will be more players coming over.”
