Kyogo’s Birmingham Gamble: A Season of Struggles and Future Decisions
When Birmingham City landed Kyogo Furuhashi in the summer of 2025, it felt like a statement. A coup, in truth.
Eighty-five goals in 165 games for Celtic. A proven finisher in the Scottish Premiership. Champions League experience. On paper, this was the kind of signing that drags a newly promoted Championship side up a level, the kind that excites a fanbase and terrifies centre-backs.
He was supposed to light up St Andrew’s. He was supposed to dovetail with Jay Stansfield and give Birmingham a front line with real bite.
He never got close.
From Glasgow hero to Championship struggle
Kyogo arrived with a reputation for sharp movement, relentless pressing and ruthless finishing. At Celtic, his runs shredded defensive lines; his composure in front of goal turned half-chances into headlines.
In Birmingham colours, that version of Kyogo barely appeared.
The 31-year-old never settled into any kind of rhythm. He stumbled through the opening weeks, misfiring when the club needed a fast start from their marquee forward. The goals that once came so naturally deserted him. One league goal. That was it.
The slow start didn’t just dent his numbers, it crushed his confidence. The chances were still there, but the conviction was not.
Former Blues midfielder Curtis Morrison, speaking to GOAL in association with Freebets.com, admitted he has struggled to make sense of the collapse.
“I can't believe why it's not working because at Celtic his movement and the chances and the goals he was scoring were fantastic,” he said.
“He was getting the chances at Birmingham City but just wasn't putting them in, and that can happen. That's just a player short on confidence and it hasn't really worked out. His work rate's fantastic but you've got to have a bit more than work rate when you're a number nine. You need to score goals and he was getting opportunities and he was just rushing at them.”
That rush, that snatching at finishes, became the story of Kyogo’s season.
Confidence drained, season cut short
The pressure finally told. Miss after miss chipped away at a striker who once looked ice-cold in front of goal.
EFL pundit Don Goodman, who watched plenty of Kyogo during the campaign, saw the spiral in real time.
“He started missing real gilt-edge chances in those first six, eight games and you could slowly but surely just see the confidence drain away from him,” Goodman told GOAL.
“In terms of value for money, it's gone horribly wrong with regard to that particular transfer. And it's surprising, really. I like his movement. He's energetic, he's quick. But he didn't look like he could hit a barn door, if I'm honest with you, after a difficult start.”
The numbers back up the eye test. One league goal from a player signed to be the focal point of the attack is brutal reading for any recruitment department, never mind one that stretched to bring in a big earner.
Then came the physical blow. A long-standing shoulder problem, managed for too long, finally forced surgery and cut short a season that had never really started.
Instead of a redemption arc, there was an abrupt stop.
Stick or twist?
Now Birmingham face a decision that could shape their next campaign.
Kyogo is on significant wages. He still carries a reputation and a track record north of the border that might tempt suitors. Exit talk has started to swirl, and Morrison can see why the club might listen.
“That's a player they could move on because he's on big money and they try to see if they can get some money for him,” he said.
But there’s a flip side, and it’s not a small one.
“Or do they stick with him and say, ‘this season could be your season and we don't have to spend money because he should be scoring goals in the Championship’.”
That is the dilemma in one neat sentence. The version of Kyogo that tore through the Scottish Premiership should, in theory, thrive at Championship level. The movement hasn’t vanished. The work rate remains. The question is whether the finishing, and the belief, can be rebuilt.
“He scored goals in the Scottish Premiership, so it's a difficult one,” Morrison added. “I hope he stays and I hope next season is his season, but you never know at Birmingham City because they have money - they can bring in players and move players on.”
A crossroads for club and striker
This is no longer just about one bad season. It’s about what comes next for a club trying to establish itself and a forward whose reputation has taken a hit.
Birmingham can cash in, cut their losses and move for a new number nine. Or they can gamble again, this time on the idea that a fully fit, mentally reset Kyogo finally resembles the predator they thought they had signed.
For Kyogo, it’s even starker. Stay and fight to prove that Celtic’s heroics weren’t the peak of his story, or seek a fresh start elsewhere and hope someone still believes he can be that player again.
One misfiring year has turned a dream move into a test of nerve. Now Birmingham must decide: is Kyogo a costly mistake, or an unlit fuse waiting for one clean strike to ignite?
