Maeda signs off with goal as Celtic seal Scottish Cup double

Daizen Maeda may be on his way out, but he signed off in the best possible way: with Celtic’s opening goal in a 3-1 Scottish Cup final win over Dunfermline Athletic at Hampden Park. If this was a farewell, it was the kind that turns a prolific forward into a figure of club folklore.

Maeda struck in the 18th minute to settle Celtic before Arne Engels and Kelechi Iheanacho added the other goals, while Josh Cooper replied for Dunfermline Athletic in the 79th minute. The victory completed Celtic’s 14th domestic double and arrived one week after the Premiership title had already been secured, giving Martin O’Neill a league-and-cup finish after his return to the club.

That context matters because Maeda’s future has become a central question around Celtic’s summer. His contract runs until the summer of 2027, but O’Neill acknowledged in April that Celtic may sell him if he does not sign a new deal, saying that if Maeda did not want to stay, selling him with a year left would be the normal thing. O’Neill has also said Maeda had given “absolutely everything” for Celtic, a judgment that fits a player who arrived from Yokohama F. Marinos in January 2022 and quickly became one of the side’s defining runners, pressers and finishers.

The comparison that has now followed Maeda around is telling. After his overhead-kick goal in the Old Firm derby, O’Neill said the strike was “up alongside” Henrik Larsson’s famous chip in a 2000 derby. That is rare company at Celtic, and it explains why Maeda’s possible departure is being discussed in Larssonesque terms. He is no longer being judged only by numbers, even though Brendan Rodgers said in September that Maeda had scored 33 goals the previous season and had been denied a summer move because Celtic had not sourced an adequate replacement.

What this final did was sharpen the verdict. Maeda did not just score another goal in another final. He scored the first goal in a match that delivered a double, extended Celtic’s domestic dominance and invited a larger question: if he does leave now, has one last decisive finish sealed his place among the club’s modern greats? The answer, judging by the Hampden send-off, is getting harder to avoid.