Celtic have signed some pretty awful attacking players during the past 12 months, whether it’s Brendan Rodgers or Martin O’Neill in the dugout.

In some cases, the likes of Joel Mvuka and Junior Adamu are no longer Celtic players because they were, thankfully, only loan deals, but the same can’t be said for Shin Yamada.

Signed under Rodgers during the 2025 summer transfer window from Kawasaki Frontale, Yamada has only played a handful of matches for the champions of Scotland, and now he is suffering out on loan at Oud-Heverlee Leuven in Belgium.

Over the weekend, Oud-Heverlee Leuven participated in the Belgian Cup, playing against second-tier side Francs Borains, but Yamada couldn’t even get off the bench in another embarrassing episode for the player.

Is a front three of Osmand, Duran and Hassan Celtic’s strongest attacking line-up now? If not, who comes in instead?

Yang, Jota and others are all in contention too…

It’s looking bleak once more for Shin Yamada out on loan

Within six months of signing for Celtic, Yamada was loaned out to Germany’s second tier, where he played for SC Preußen Münster, but they were relegated.

Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise when the Japan star returned to Glasgow this summer; he was loaned out again, this time to the Belgian Pro League.

Yamada joined Oud-Heverlee Leuven, where he struggled for minutes early on despite his team’s own issues, and then he was handed a few starts without being able to find the back of the net.

But those two stints on the pitch just resulted in the 26-year-old returning to the bench, where he wasn’t even used against a team from Belgium’s second division.

It needs to be noted that Oud-Heverlee Leuven have only won one league game this term, battling relegation, so it isn’t a surprise they could only narrowly beat Francs Borains.

But the issue for Yamada is that his manager, Timmy Simons, didn’t even trust him and opted against using him for a cup matches.

All in all, given that Yamada is yet to score since moving to Belgium, it doesn’t bode well for the striker, who has only scored three goals since moving to Europe.