Kyogo's Struggles at Birmingham City

When Birmingham City landed Kyogo in the summer of 2025, it felt like a statement. A proven goalscorer from Celtic, 85 goals in 165 games, Champions League pedigree, relentless movement. For a newly promoted Championship side, it looked like a steal.

On paper, he was the perfect fit. A buzzing, hard-working No 9 to dovetail with Jay Stansfield at St Andrew’s, stretch defences and drag Birmingham into the top half of the table. The script was written. The reality never followed.

The 31-year-old never got going. He stumbled through those opening weeks, snatching at chances, searching for rhythm that never arrived. One league goal. A season cut short by surgery on a long-standing shoulder problem. The coup turned into a conundrum.

Confidence Lost, Questions Asked

Former Birmingham favourite Clinton Morrison has watched the collapse with disbelief.

“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 told GOAL, speaking in association with Freebets.com.

The movement, he insists, didn’t vanish when Kyogo crossed the border. The chances were there.

“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 word keeps coming back: confidence. Strikers live and die by it. For Kyogo, those first few weeks felt decisive.

“I think if he had started there in his first few games and started scoring a lot of goals as a centre-forward, his confidence would have just gone back through the roof and he would have scored a lot of goals, but he hasn't been anywhere near it.”

From there, the spiral took hold. Misses bred doubt. Doubt bred more misses. The shoulder problem did the rest.

Stick or Twist?

Now Birmingham face a decision that cuts to the heart of their project. Persist with a high-earning forward who has barely laid a glove on the Championship, or cut their losses and move him on.

“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,” Morrison admitted. “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’.”

The evidence from Scotland still lingers in the background. This is not a player learning how to score; this is a player who has already done it at a high level.

“He scored goals in the Scottish Premiership, so it's a difficult one. 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.”

Hope, but no guarantees. Not for Kyogo, not in this squad.

From Dream Deal to Costly Misfire

EFL pundit Don Goodman has seen the decline up close and describes a transformation that no one at Birmingham expected when the ink dried on that contract.

“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,” he told GOAL.

The movement was still sharp. The energy, the speed, all there. The finish deserted him.

“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.”

A dream signing that now sits on the balance sheet as a problem. A forward once feared in Glasgow, suddenly fighting to convince anyone he belongs in the Championship.

The numbers at Celtic say one thing. The evidence at Birmingham says another. The club must now decide which version of Kyogo they believe in – and how long they are prepared to wait for that answer.