Prolific Shamrock Rovers striker Johnny Kenny returned to Celtic training on Thursday morning at Lennoxtown…
Kenny netted on five occasions in this season’s UEFA Conference League group phase matches taking his tally to seven European goals during a record-breaking campaign on the continent for Shamrock Rovers.
The Irish Premier Division side finished 10th in UEFA’s third tier competition setting up a mammoth knockout playoff round encounter with Norwegian outfit Molde in February.
Thus, Rovers became the first Irish side in history to reach that far of a European competition banking €5.5 million in the process. However, they will be without their star man heading into back-to-back games against Molde.
A January 2022 signing
Kenny, who signed for Celtic in January 2022 on a five-year deal from Sligo Rovers spent time at Queens Park on loan during the same year has spent the last two years at the Tallaght club.
Celtic’s recalled striker became the first Shamrock Rovers player to score 20 goals across all competitions in a season for 12 years.
Kenny’s last game for Shamrock Rovers came in their 5-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago.
“Come January, I need to impress at Celtic”
Pre-match to his visit to London, he admitted that he aspires of returning to Celtic and hit the ground running in Glasgow; “It’s my dream to play for Celtic and hopefully I get that in January,” Kenny said. “Time will tell. The goals in Europe are probably worth two or three in the league. I haven’t done myself any harm but it’s over now and come January, I need to impress at Celtic.”
Brendan Rodgers consistently talks about that third striker position being vacant, and with Kenny impressing in Europe, he may well be the man to fill that void in the second half of this season.
Some publicity around Kenny signing for Celtic in January 2022 is shown below.
Our new Irish striker, @johnny_kenny2 describes his playing style 👊🇮🇪
🗣️ “I’m a striker that likes to get in behind and press defenders. I bring massive work-rate to the team and hopefully I can score goals and get the fans on their feet.”#WelcomeJohnny 🍀 #CelticFC
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) January 12, 2022
Johnny Kenny on signing for Celtic:
“I want to come here, win trophies, score goals, get the fans on my side and win stuff here at Celtic Park”
He has been given the No.24 in Celtic’s first team
Just 18 years old
🇮🇪💚 pic.twitter.com/RD8Zd6ze1p
— IrishPropaganda🇮🇪⚽️ (@IrishPropaganda) January 12, 2022
Conor Spence
We don’t need another non-goalscoring centre-forward who can hopefully score goals – we’ve already got two 1st team ‘strikers, with a goal apiece in the ECL. Cummings 6 goals in 6 Youth ECL games & Turley 2 goals. Time to replace some of the oldsters.