Kyogo’s Birmingham Gamble Turns Sour as Exit Talk Grows
When Birmingham City prised Kyogo away from Celtic in the summer of 2025, it felt like a statement. A proven finisher with 85 goals in 165 games for the Glasgow giants, Champions League minutes in his legs and a reputation for relentless movement, dropping into the Championship looked less like a risk and more like an opportunity.
On paper, he was the marquee signing to spearhead a promotion push. In reality, the move never got off the ground.
From Glasgow hero to St Andrew’s struggle
The plan was simple enough. Kyogo would adapt quickly to the pace and physicality of the second tier, dovetail with Jay Stansfield and give Birmingham a razor-sharp edge in the final third. Instead, the 31-year-old stumbled from the start.
He never found rhythm. He never found that early goal rush every striker craves in a new league. The season became a grind. One league goal, a growing sense of frustration, and then the final blow: surgery on a long-standing shoulder problem that cut his campaign short.
Momentum never arrived. Confidence never recovered.
Those who watched him tear up defences in Scotland have struggled to join the dots.
“I can’t believe why it’s not working”
Former Birmingham midfielder Clinton Morrison, speaking to GOAL in association with Freebets.com, did not hide his surprise at how sharply Kyogo’s form has turned.
“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,” Morrison said.
The movement, he insists, is still there. The work rate too.
“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, really, is the heart of the story. The chances didn’t disappear. The finishing did.
Morrison is convinced that the opening weeks of the season set the tone.
“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.”
Instead of a hot streak, there was a drought. Instead of a talisman, Birmingham were left with a high-earning forward searching for himself.
Big wages, bigger decision
That is where the conversation now turns. With Kyogo generating exit talk, Birmingham face a blunt question: cut their losses or double down?
“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’.”
He has done it in the Scottish Premiership. He has shown, over multiple seasons, that he can live off half-chances and punish defences. The gap between that version of Kyogo and the one in Birmingham colours has been stark.
“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.”
For a club with financial muscle, sentiment will not drive the decision.
Confidence drained, value questioned
Kyogo’s struggles have not gone unnoticed by those who cover the league week in, week out. EFL pundit Don Goodman has watched the story unfold and sees a classic case of a striker swallowed by a bad start.
“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,” Goodman told GOAL.
The technical qualities that made him such an attractive signing remain.
“I like his movement. He's energetic, he's quick,” Goodman said.
But the end product deserted him.
“He didn't look like he could hit a barn door, if I'm honest with you, after a difficult start.”
From a financial standpoint, Goodman did not sugarcoat the reality.
“In terms of value for money, it's gone horribly wrong with regard to that particular transfer.”
What next for Kyogo?
That is the uncomfortable backdrop as Birmingham weigh up their summer. A big wage, a bruised reputation, and a decision that will say plenty about where the club sees itself going.
Is Kyogo a sunk cost to be moved on, or a proven goalscorer one good run away from redemption in the Championship?
Birmingham can buy again. They can reshape the forward line. Kyogo, though, has already shown in one footballing hotbed that he can be the man. The question now is whether St Andrew’s will ever see that version of him, or whether his time in the Midlands goes down as one of the most puzzling misfires of the club’s recent era.
