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Fullname: Jason Grégory Marianne Denayer
aka: Jason Denayer
Born: 28 June 1995
Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium
Signed: 12 August 2014 (loan from Man City)
Left: 31 May 2015
Position: Central Defender
Debut: Celtic 6-1 Dundee Utd, League, 16 Aug 2014 (scored once)
Squad No.: 22
Internationals: Belgium
International Caps: ? [complete at end of career]
International Goals: ? [complete at end of career]
Biog
“It has been the best year of my life because I’ve made my first professional start at club level but also for the national team. It has been a great season for me and more than I expected. To come here and play every game has been a lot for me.”
Jason Denayer (2015)
Denayer arrived at Celtic as a major loan signing for Celtic. A highly feted player he was crowded out at the bloated arrogant Man City which was being pumped fully of overpaid players by its mega rich oil barons. So to get some game time, Denayer was a welcome loanee to Celtic but also a reflection of the growing gulf between Celtic and the mega clubs of the major leagues in world football.
Denayer was to be a star for the first team, simply he was a class act. A strong and intelligent player, he provided an effective partnership with Van Dijk. Admittedly he had a shaky start in the early games, and little convinced but this was also due to the poor entry of Deila as manager who was out of his depth in his early days at Celtic.
His debut v Dundee Utd saw Denayer score in a 6-1 win, but the defence was poorly set out and the results in Europe early on reflected that. In time that was to be rectified with Denayer a prime part of the regeneration of the defence.
The prior season central pair of Van Dijk and Ambrose was a success, but Ambrose was the new whipping boy for critics (with some justification). This opening allowed Denayer some breathing space and it paid off in spades after giving the management the right to overhaul the defence.
Once settled in, he contributed not only a working central partnership with Van Dijk but also a number of goals. Against Dundee Utd in a two nil win the pairing teamed up to create a delightfully worked goal together This pairing was quite an asset, and in football such a goal created and sealed by a central defence is rare. Denayer was a great threat at set pieces and provided another outlet for the side, and didn’t half .
Denayer was bulky and athletic, and a very confident player well advanced for his age. Often he would simply step into the defensive duties without needing to break a sweat. A good tackler and distributor of the ball, he was an asset to the side. Granted he could lose concentration too which lost us a few goals, he was still on the right road if not well ahead along it.
Denayer was a very mature defender for his age, he was patient and didn’t dive in recklessly. He often ferried players out wide and then dispossessed them. He only picked up a single yellow card in 29 league games for us during the season which was quite incredible. Add to this he grabbed a handful of goals some of which were excellent.
You can wax lyrical about this player, and he was coming on in leaps and bounds. This loan move is probably the best thing that will ever happen in his career, and all parties were benefiting. Without it he likely would have been rotting in the moratorium that is big squad reserves in English football. Fancy facilities can only get you so far, actual game time in meaningful games is what counts, and he was living it up.
As a measure of his value, he was nominated along with Van Dijk for the SP player of the season, another measure of the success of the pairing, even ahead of much feted goalkeeper Craig Gordon. Denayer won the award but this just raised fears that he was for the off. He also won the equivalent PFA award which further fuelled worries (a dual edged sword these rewards in this case).
Amongst the many highlights, was winning his first international cap, something he would unlikely have ever achieved down in the dregs with Man City’s reserves. It was all going right for him. As he was to put it himself:
“It has been the best year of my life because I’ve made my first professional start at club level but also for the national team. It has been a great season for me and more than I expected. To come here and play every game has been a lot for me.”
The problem was that as a loanee that he was not Celtic’s to keep. With his precocious talent, inevitably interest from his mother club was to come, and other richer clubs were going to have their ears pricked up knowing he was to be available again. Man City had already supposedly said to him that he should next move to the English Championship on loan for a season, which was infuriating and dubious.
He was clearly happy at Celtic, and the move was the best development move he could have wished for. Another season or two would have been perfect for both sides. Sadly not to be. He actually admitted that he had found it easy at Celtic, but when you have a partner in van Dijk in defence and Craig Gordon behind you, then things were going to be easier to manage.
He returned to Man City after the end of the loan deal in the summer of 2015, with a worthy league & Scottish League Cup set of winner’s medals, and the respect and best wishes of the Celtic fans.
Post-Celtic
After Celtic he continued on the loanee merry go round at Galatasary (two spells) and Sunderland.
Despite his successful time in Turkey (won the league title with Galatasary in 2018), he wasn’t reaching the heights in recognition internationally. Incredibly, in 2018 he was overlooked for the World Cup squad but there was still a place for Celtic player Boyata who had often been highly derided in Scotland. After Denayer’s poor showing in the Euros in 2016, it looked like he had been made to pay heavily for Belgium’s exits and to carry the can.
To rub it in, his former Celtic colleague van Dijk was by 2017/18 ranked as possibly the best defender in the world, and Liverpool had just paid a mind boggling £75m for him. A reminder that Denayer was heavily praised when the pair played together at Celtic, but as of mid-2018 one was hitting the heights (and had played in a European Cup final) whilst the other was sidelined by his national side missing out on a World Cup squad spot, albeit with plenty of time to prove any naysayers wrong.
He moved onto Lyon on a permanent move, playing alongside ex-Celt Moussa Dembele, and finally things had turned the corner well and he was back on track playing at a top level both domestically and in Europe too.
However, in 2022, Denayer at the prime age of 27 was to end up near-washed up. A free agent unwanted it seems across the major clubs, he was off to the footballing dead end of Dubai to the UAE football league (albeit financially very rewarding). This was a time at the cusp of the World Cup to begin in neighbouring Qatar, a tournament he should have been starring in, but he was far out the picture now, and only called up literally last minute by Belgium as cover as an injury replacement. He ended up with no gametime at the tournament.
Whilst his former Celtic colleague van Dijk was striding the football world at the top-end, Denayer was quite a few levels below. It had all gone badly wrong for him when on the basis of his talents alone he should have been dining at the top table. He moved on to Al Fateh in the Saudi Pro League at a time their clubs were throwing money around heavily.
[….]
Quotes
“It has been the best year of my life because I’ve made my first professional start at club level but also for the national team. It has been a great season for me & more than I expected. To come here & play every game has been a lot for me.”
Jason Denayer (2015)
‘It was the best moment of my career,’ beamed Denayer.
‘I have never played in a game like that before – but I hope to play in bigger games in future…..I wouldn’t say I was nervous the night before, though. It was more a feeling of excitement.
‘It was difficult to sleep on Saturday night because I was so desperate to play in the Old Firm game. Everybody had been speaking about it and I was very happy to play the match.
‘The whole occasion was just amazing. I had my family at the game too and I know a lot of my friends were watching it back home in Belgium. The atmosphere was very good and very different to what I imagined. When I heard both sets of supporters it was just unreal.’
Denayer on the Celtic v TheRangers game (Feb 2015)
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 2014-15 | 29 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 44 |
| Goals | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League
Scottish League Cup