Ex-Celtic forward Scott McDonald appeared on a recent edition of the BBC’s Sportsound Scottish Football podcast to discuss his career, and the current Brisbane Roar attacker spent some time discussing his former teammate Shunsuke Nakamura.
McDonald and Nakamura played together at Celtic in the 2007/08 and 2008/09 seasons, as per Transfermarkt. During his recent appearance on Sportsound, McDonald was tasked with naming his personal all-time XI comprised of players that he has played with during his career, with the former Australia international reserving a place in his squad for Nakamura.
McDonald was full of praise for the 42-year-old, who currently plays with Yokohama FC. Here is what the Australian had to say about his former teammate: “Nakamura, by far the best footballer I’ve ever played with. The hours he used to put in – what a professional he was. He used to go out for hours and hours on end hitting free-kicks after training.”
The former Celtic striker went on to say: “I think the thing with Nakamura as well, he didn’t speak a lot of English, but he was such a perfectionist. If he came off the training field and just felt it wasn’t happening for him, he’d be in such a mood [for] the whole day.
“You could see it in him, you’d ask a question and he would just mumble a little bit and you knew. That was the guy, he was just a top, top professional.”
Are you pleased to see that Nakamura was included in McDonald's all-time XI?
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In the past, Celtic’s official website has described Nakamura as a ‘legend’ and a ‘magical midfielder’ who produced ‘many iconic moments’ during his time at Parkhead. It may be fair to say that this shows that the ex-Hoops playmaker is held in high esteem by the Glasgow-based club and Hoops supporters may be glad to see that McDonald included him in his all-time XI of players who he lined up alongside during his career.