He was a rising star in the East. Now he's a rising star in Glasgow's East end.

The £4.6 million shelled out by Ange Postecoglou for Japanese striker Kyogo Furuhashi from Vissel Kobe might well turn out to be the best piece of transfer business of this season and arguably for years at Celtic.

In a word, the hitman has brought "joy" to Paradise. Unbridled joy.

Other than former Brazil and Barcelona superstar, Ronaldinho, there are few players who play football with as broad a smile on their face as Kyogo. He is a breath of fresh air.

He is so humble and looks genuinely happy to be plying his trade in Glasgow with Celtic.

Kyogo has also brought goals. The 26-year-old has netted 13 goals for Celtic in 18 appearances in all competitions so far and is the leading goalscorer in the Scottish Premiership this season with seven, averaging a strike every 95 minutes. There will be plenty more to come.

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Here's another frightening statistic. Celtic sport a 100 per cent win rate when Kyogo has started through the middle.

In the five Premiership games that Celtic have dropped points in this season, he was either unavailable through injury, on the bench or deployed on the left-wing.

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Kyogo possesses a rare quickness of thought and his movement is exceptional whether he is arcing and spinning his runs from the sides or simply playing on the shoulder. He has also shown a predatory instinct in front of goals and has fantastic technique.

Yes, he misses the odd sitter but he is the kind of player that gets supporters bums off their seats. In short, he has lit up Scottish football.

Ironically, former Celtic hitman, Odsonne Edouard seems to have developed a 'Kyogo-like' work ethic since he signed for Crystal Palace in the English Premier League.

Funny that isn't it?

Yet here in Scotland we've not even unwrapped our Christmas presents and Kyogo is already being tipped as the Scottish footballer of the year elect.

Simply put, Kyogo is the best footballer in Scotland ... by some considerable distance.

Kyogo arrived a relative unknown on British football shores but he wasn't a stranger to the man that signed him.

Celtic Way:

After Sunday's double in the 4-2 rout of Dundee at Dens Park, the Aussie said this of Kyogo: "Kyogo's been fantastic, not just with his goals, but with the way he goes about things and his personality. He loves the club, his enthusiasm is infectious, the boys love him and the crowd obviously loves him. I guess I’m probably the least surprised person in Scotland about his ability because I’d seen it first-hand and I’m delighted for him and, again, there’s more to come."

Ange knew exactly what he was doing when he brought Kyogo to the club. He knew the effect he would have on and off the park and inside the Celtic dressing room. It shines through in Kyogo's utterly selfless and energetic performances.

I'll remind everybody that he has been here for four months.

The sight of Kyogo scoring and his trademark celebration of placing his hands above his head which symbolises the number 8 in Japanese - 'Hachi', taking mobile phone videos of his teammates whilst out injured, picking up litter from the stadium and rubbing Tony Ralston's knee when he got hurt in a challenge. Kyogo is no ordinary bhoy or striker.

Allied to all of the above is his unerring ability to sprint away from defenders and find the back of the net with ease and regularity.

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Talismanic they call it. The last man to be afforded such status down the Celtic Way was a certain Super Swede by the name of Henrik Larsson.

Larsson grabbed 242 goals in 315 games over a seven-year period for Celtic. This guy possesses all the talent in the world and could and probably should be playing in a better league. Yet somehow Celtic is the draw for him.

It is definitely Scottish football's gain to be witnessing such a player at the peak of his powers. For far too long, Celtic have operated as a business whereby they brought young players into the club and sold them off for huge profits.

A kind of 'Stepping Stone FC' - if you will. That model brought Celtic a lot of success down the years. When we look at Kyogo though he looks to have bucked that trend as Ange recruited an 'oven-ready' player. It would certainly appear that Kyogo is at the club he wants to be at.

Ange now has a body of evidence to present to the Celtic board in the New Year on his judgement of a player. The manager has armed himself with all the weapons needed to force the Celtic hierarchy into plundering and exploiting the Japanese game even further.

It is clearly a market that the 56-year-old Aussie knows inside out. Kawasaki midfielder Reo Hetate and Yokohama F. Marinos striker Daizen Maeda are reputedly being lined up to join Kyogo at Celtic Park in January. There would be no excuses for Celtic not getting these deals over the line now.

Kyogo is a shining example to himself, Ange and other J1League players who fancy a crack at a club like Celtic given he's already placed himself on the Scottish football of the year shortlist...in November!

He still only has 10 full international caps for Japan but if he continues to tear it up here as well as in Europe then that meagre tally will accelerate at an alarming rate. You get the feeling that Kyogo has only just begun to start terrorising Scottish football defences.

He may not speak much English. Thankfully for Ange, Celtic and his teammates, Kyogo does know one thing and that is the international language for scoring a goal. "Goru o kimeru." As they say in Japanese.