DAIZEN MAEDA fired blanks again as Japan beat Scotland 1-0 in the friendly international at Hampden at the weekend.

The Celtic forward has found goals difficult to come by in 2026 and, astonishingly, last season’s top marksman with 33 strikes has claimed only ONE since the turn of the year.

That solitary counter came in the 4-0 win over Dundee United at Parkhead on January 10 in Martin O’Neill’s second comeback as interim boss following the 33 catastrophic days of Wilfried Nancy.

After captaining his country for the first time against Steve Clarke’s side, Maeda proved he was also quite adept at hitting blanks when he was questioned by the media about his Hoops future.

Lasr summer, the 28-year-old speedster looked to be heading for Wolfsburg in a £14million deal only for the move to collapse.

The champions knocked back the offer from the Bundesliga club because they had no replacement lined up to take the place of the prolific attack-leader who had stepped up following Kyogo Furuhashi’s £10million switch to Rennes the previous January.

Asked if he expected to remain in Glasgow after this summer’s World Cup Finals, Meada clammed up.

He point blank refused to answer any...