K-Park to Paradise – What’s required for Shin Yamada’s Celtic breakthrough

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The Celtic Star

·13 November 2025

K-Park to Paradise – What’s required for Shin Yamada’s Celtic breakthrough

Just over a decade ago Willie Wallace was organising a trial for a young Australian of Serbian heritage who he reckoned could make the grade at Celtic…

Willie Wallace at Celtic Park in 2017

Willie as always was on the look-out for players and used his Lisbon Lions network to organise the trial initially was going to put the young lad up with fiends in Clydebank. However he ask me if I could help, knowing that we have three boys and reckoning that would be a better fit anyway for the young Australian hopeful.

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When he arrived at training it’s fair to say that he wasn’t given the warmest of welcomes, mostly because of the left-field nature of the arrangement. But John Clark as you would expect got his way and shortly Bertie Auld would get involved too.

There’s a Croatian coach at the Celtic Academy and that helped the trialist whose name was Nick. He played against Manchester City and a match against Republic of Ireland and played well in both games but lost possession inside his own half resulting in a goal, I can’t recall in which match.

That was that as far as Celtic was concerned but he did get the chance to come Celtic Park to the Champions League qualifier against Karagandy as Celtic battled back from a first leg 2-0 deficit to win 3-0 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate.

Celtic legend Bertie Auld, photo The Celtic Wiki

Having felt a little hard done by his Celtic experience, Wispy contacted Bertie Auld who then spoke to Jim Duffy and Chic Charnley who were at Clyde at the time. As chance would have it they were organising a game that week taking a look at various free agents who they could sign and build a team around.

Chic Charnley, Hibernian FC 06 October 1997 Photo Mary Evans Allstar Paul McFegan

The venue was K-Park in East Kilbride on a murky, wet and humid night where the midgies were out in force and the ball skidded across the surface at a fair rate of knots. Nick impressed but was a little surprised when he heard about the size of the wage packets on offer at clubs like Clyde. He headed down south for a trial with Arsenal then back to Australia, where he has subsequently gone on to build up a highly successful online retail business.

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20.05.1989: Photo imago/Colorsport Celtic – Pat Bonner, Peter Grant, Mark McGhee und Tommy Burns

I thought of this when reading Peter Grant’s views on Shin Yamada playing for Celtic B team at K Park last night, as reported by Glasgow Times.

Paul McStay and Roy Aitken celebrate Celtic winning the 1988 Scottish Cup Final on 14 May, against Dundee United at Hampden. Photo Imago/ Colorsport.

Peter Grant was in my year at school and is absolutely steeped in Celtic. With plenty of coaching experience to boot he knows how tough it is to make it in the game and he’s a player who absolutely maximised what he could achieve in the game though commitment, hard graft and his force of character. Never as good as Paul McStay (who was?) or Tommy Burns, he still did his job and always gave 100% for Celtic.

Shin Yamada. Hearts v Celtic, 26 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

That’s the very least he’d expect watching any set of players perform in a Celtic jersey.

Here’s what Grant had to say last night about Shin Yamada, like Nick a young player from Asia travelling to the other side of the world hoping to play for Celtic.

“Listen, he showed good movement,” Peter Grant said. “I was disappointed for him on the night, because I think this way of playing out, East Kilbride were very aware of it. So, East Kilbride pushed straight up the pitch. Celtic continued to play out, lose possession, lose possession, get through a couple of times, but not very often.

Shin Yamada – theRangers v Celtic, 31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

“So, the difficulty for Shin was that he was making the movements up front. A couple of times, he played it quicker and behind. All of a sudden, he ran away from them. Two fantastic chances.

“And I would put it down to good defending more than bad misses. So two opportunities, I would say, out of the game. He was really fast. He left the boy for dead a couple of times.”

Celtic B team lost the match 2-0 but despite that, Grant was impressed by the Japanese striker, who is very much on the fringes of things at Lennoxtown. “But again, he showed a fantastic attitude. And it’s unusual to see a 25-year-old playing in the B team, but he showed a fantastic attitude.

Shin Yamada of Celtic. Celtic v Livingston, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, 23 August 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace IMAGO Shutterstock

“He’s even arguing with the referee going off a half-time because of the boy. To be fair, the boy could have been put off. He’d actually done him after being booked. You know, and he wasn’t happy right at half-time. He was still talking to him.

“I’m thinking, ‘he’s learned some Scottish!'”

Yamada joined Celtic from J1 League side Kawasaki Frontale in the summer transfer window, as a so-called club signing. He’s made six appearances for the first team, most recently from the bench in the 3-1 defeat at Tynecastle which turned out to be Brendan Rodgers last game in change.

Shin Yamada of Celtic during the Premier League match between Celtic and Livingston at Celtic Park on August 23, 2025 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

I couldn’t help thinking about Nick coming from the other end of the world hoping to play for Celtic and wondering what Shin Yamada might have made of K Park himself. He’s going to need that Peter Grant drive, determination and self-believe if he’s going to go from there to making a name for himself at Paradise.

Let’s hope he can do it.

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