Celtic Park's new favourite Kyogo Furuhashi could have been lining up opposite the 11 men in green and white on Wednesday night.
But Vissel Kobe's sporting director rebuffed AZ Alkmaar's advances in 2019 – as he wanted the Japanese goal machine to join a "big club".
Furuhashi is a superstar back home, proven by the extraordinary buzz his SPFL YouTube highlights and Celtic's new Japanese Twitter account have generated.
And Kobe supremo Atsuhiro Miura appears to have been spot on in his call to keep the 26-year-old for another two years as he's arrived in Glasgow looking like the complete package.
Ange Postecoglou's flagship signing has five goals in five games, netting a superb hat-trick on his home debut against Dundee and adding strikes against Jablonec and Hearts.
But Alkmaar, alongside fellow Eredivisie club FC Groningen, tried to pry him out of Japan too early for Miura's liking.
He'd only played in Japan's top flight for a year having moved from second-tier FC Gifu.
And in retrospect, it's clear which team from the Europa League play-off tie his former side consider to be the bigger club.
Miura said: "Rather than using the transfer as a stepping-stone move, we would prefer him to join a big team straight from Kobe."
