This is brilliant, hopefully it’s all accurate as it’s quite a story. We noticed it this morning on The Fitbaw Gospel page on Facebook and thought we really should be sharing it with the readers on The Celtic Star…
The Scottish Football Twilight Zone 😳
Both of these men (at the time of picture)
Play for Celtic ✅
Play right back ✅
Signed in January ✅
Aged 24 ✅
Replaced a departing fan favourite ✅
Made their debuts against Rangers ✅
Made their debut at Ibrox ✅
Never won their debut ✅
Undefeated in first 6 league games ✅
Second Old Firm was a League Cup final victory ✅
Won the League Cup in their first season with a famous win over Rangers ✅
Spent most of their lives outside Europe ✅
Wear number 2 ✅
Have an Irish granny ✅
Have a brother who plays professionally ✅
Signed for Celtic exactly 67 years apart ✅
Look like they could be twins ✅
John Donnelly 🤝 Alistair Johnston
John Donnelly and Alistair Johnston’s Celtic stories may be separated by 67 years but their stories are eerily similar, much like their looks are too.
Both Donnelly and Johnston signed for Celtic in the month of January, both played at right back, and both were 24 years of age at their time of signing for the Celts. Oh, and both signed exactly 67 years apart, on 16 January 1956 in the case of John Donnelly and 16 January 2023 in the case of Alistair Johnston.
And there’s more, much more besides!
Donnelly made his first team debut against Rangers in a Glasgow Cup tie at Ibrox on 19th August 1957, unfortunately Celtic didn’t win the match. However, Donnelly did get a good review as according to the Celtic Wiki “Donnelly in his debut was effective and intelligent keeping Hubbard bottled up“.
Meanwhile Alistair Johnston, as we all know, also wasn’t able to taste victory in his first game, as Celtic drew the 2 January Glasgow Derby 2-2, yet that was also against theRangers, also in January and also with both also debuting at Ibrox. Add to that Donnelly’s post-match praise could easily have described Johnston’s equally impressive debut at Ibrox, after signing from Montreal Impact.
So quite the similarities there, but there’s a bit more yet…
Both Johnston and Donnelly replaced fans favourites in their debut appearances. Johnston in the shape of Josip Juranovic and with John Donnelly it was Duncan Mackay.
Alistair Johnston and John Donnelly were also both part of Celtic sides undefeated in their first six matches in the Hoops, and both did win their second Glasgow Derby fixtures. Donnelly as right back in that famous 7-1 League Cup Final win of 1957, and Johnston’s second Glasgow Derby also saw him lift the League Cup, with Sunday’s 2-1 win over theRangers seeing our Canadian international lift the same trophy Donnelly did back in 1957.
And we’re not quite done just yet. Both Donnelly and Johnston wore the same number. Johnstone with the number two on the back of his shirt meanwhile Donnelly donned the same number, only his would likely have been imprinted on his shorts.
Both players also had an Irish Grandmother, both with siblings who also played professional football, Malcolm Johnston who was selected in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft by New York City this year in the case of Alistair, and Peter Donnelly who played for Brighton and Cardiff amongst others in the case of John Donnelly.
And both Johnston and Donnelly spent the majority of their lives living outside of Europe, with John Donnelly eventually moving to South Africa where, after retiring, he ran a shopfitting business, only returning to Scotland in 2004 where he passed away on 31 July 2009 in Broxburn at the age of 72, meanwhile Alistair Johnstone has been brought up in Canada, only moving to Scotland when signing for Celtic.
When you add to the mix just how spookily alike both players are facially are it will be interesting to see if further similarities emerge between the stories of two Celtic players who represented the club some 67 years apart.
Niall J
Whoever researched this take a bow 👏 pic.twitter.com/nen3ba24UI
— Owen Gorman (@OwenGorman67) March 3, 2023
