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Fullname: Johnny Kenny
aka: John Kenny
Born: 6 June 2003
Birthplace: Riverstown, County Sligo, Ireland
Signed: 9 January 2021 (from Sligo Rovers, est €150k)
On Loan: August 2022 – June 2023 (to Queen’s Park); 2 Feb 2026 – 31 May 2026 (to Bolton)
Left: –
Position: Central-Striker, Forward
Debut: Ross County 1-4 Celtic, SP, 11 Jan 2025
Squad No.: 24
Internationals: Ireland
International Caps: [TBC at end of career]
International Goals: [TBC at end of career]
Biog
Signed in January 2022, in a welcome but surprise move, but was mostly overshadowed by the recent high-profile treble signings of the trio from Japan. Celtic were under new management under Ange, and it was finally a club that was turning the corner. The fresh faced 18-year-old Johnny Kenny arrived as a work in progress at Celtic on a five year contract demonstrating some confidence in the young player for the long run but he needed to be patient.
To help provide him with some gametime, he was loaned out to Queen’s Park who were riding high in the second tier. However, he was unable to make much inroads, gaining little gametime and not managing to score any goals in his time. It didn’t bode well.
With Giakoumakis and Kyogo ahead in the queue at Celtic for the first team, there was little opening for the young Johnny Kenny at this time.
He was sent on loan for a season to Shamrock Rovers in January 2023, returning for another season in 2024. His record was very decent, especially in 2024 when he scored a barrow load. A high mark was scoring two goals in their 2-1 victory v Vikingur Reykjavik 2-1 in a Champions League qualifying match. He then made a name for himself with some fine form in the third tier Europa Conference League competition with a number of goals including one v Rapid Vienna in a 1-1 draw (Nov 2024).
Return to Celtic (Jan 2025 onwards)
Despite that decent form, he was generally overlooked by the general Celtic support, but some reports stated that Rodgers had noted his good form away and so was going to be given an opportunity on his return. Which he duly did, giving Kenny a run on in a 4-1 win v Ross County (Jan 2025) to finally give him his first team debut. Kenny even almost scored as soon as he arrived on the field, but he had a decent performance.
With fellow Irishman Adam Idah’s transfer in for around £9m, whilst Kyogo was still banging in the goals too, a heavily strengthened squad under Brendan Rodgers meant his opportunities were going to be even harder to achieve. Albeit once Kyogo left in January 2025, it did provide an unexpected opportunity, although Rodgers admittedly did not hand him many chances. In fairness, Maeda was to be on fire and Idah could not really be relegated to third choice.
He only scored once on his return in the competitive matches, once in a 5-1 demolition of Aberdeen in the penultimate league match of the season. It wasn’t helping his case.
A sliding doors moment occurred for Johnny Kenny in the 1-1 draw v TheRangers (Apr 2025), if only at the death when Maeda was one on one with the goalkeeper that he should have passed to Kenny to likely score it would have won Celtic the match. It may also have changed Johnny Kenny’s life & career!
He made it clear during the summer that he wanted to seal a new deal at Celtic, but really the situation for gametime was little different to before. He actually performed well in the summer friendly matches, but Celtic needed more now than a project. The entry of Yamada meant Johnny Kenny was now further back in the queue.
Anyone criticising Celtic’s position with Johnny Kenny should realise that even the Ireland national side, who were going through a very desperate era, weren’t giving Kenny opportunities with the senior side despite the domestic goals with his loan club. Johnny Kenny was still relatively young at this point, and inevitably would develop into a fine player.
The problem was that there was thought to be little room at Celtic for that to happen for him.
The manager had some faith in him, and Celtic extended his contract to 2029. However, he was mostly phased out at Celtic under Rodgers whose reign into the 2025/26 season was hitting the buffers. Even though Celtic had messed up the Transfer window in Summer 2026, with no proper replacement for Idah, and bringing in Iheanacho on a free. Once Rodgers departed from Celtic in October 2025, this gave Kenny an unexpected opportunity.
He soon repaid the faith in him by the interim management under Martin O’Neill, by scoring the opening two goals v Falkirk in a 4-0 win (Oct 2026) to help given Martin O’Neill a great start to his new reign, and
He then scored the opener v TheRangers in a 3-1 League Cup semi-final win (Oct 2025). It was a truly excellent header from a corner-kick, and he had played excellently in the match making life difficult for the opposition. Taking in how low Celtic were at this point, losing their manager a week before and having messed up twice in the league, this was a notable game, and Kenny deserved the plaudits for his contributions. Under Martin O’Neill in his first interim managerial spell, he had his best spell and score one more goal v Kilmarnock a week later.
He was even rewarded by finally winning his first international cap, 3-2 win v Hungary in a 2026 World Cup qualifier, helping them to the qualifying playoffs.
Things weren’t to really pick up too much for him from there on in. The brief disastrous Wilfried Nancy era was a nightmare as much for him as for Celtic, as he could not find his shooting boots in this era, albeit the errant tactics & underpar performances didn’t help provide him with much opportunity to score. If anything, it seemed to fuel again the belief to the bulk of the support that really Kenny was not good enough at all.
Even the return of Martin O’Neill for a second interim managerial spell in January 2026 wasn’t going to be enough, and it was clear that Martin O’Neill was admitting defeat too to help Johnny Kenny. You couldn’t deny the commitment & effort he made on the field, but everyone has their limitations, and he’d had enough opportunities to prove himself. As he once stated himself:
‘To play for Celtic FC, you have to go another level!’
Johnny Kenny
Despite the desperation for Celtic to bring in any strikers, Johnny Kenny was clearly out of the picture. It was no surprise when he was sent out on loan to Bolton till the end of the 2025/26 season for his own sake
[….]
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Quotes
“Johnny has been magnificent for Sligo Rovers. At a very young age he showed all the attributes to make a successful career in the game and he can take great pride in what he has already achieved in these very early days. “It was clear a move would occur at some point and as it comes now, all of our staff, players and coaches wish him the very best. He retains our support whenever needed.”
Sligo manager Liam Buckley
“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.”
Johnny Kenny
‘To play for Celtic FC, you have to go another level!’
@ShamrockRovers’ Johnny Kenny
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Playing Career
[Table to indicate clubs played for, including dates, transfers and fees where known [e.g. soccerbase table]]
| APPEARANCES (subs) |
LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 2021-22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022-23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023-24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024-25 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Goals | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025-26 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 22 |
| Goals | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Total | 23 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 32 |
| Goals | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
Honours with Celtic
(Honours are marked below in which the player has played in at least one of the matches in the campaign.)
Scottish League
- 2024-25, [….]
Scottish Cup
- [….]
Scottish League Cup
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Articles
Johnny Kenny: Celtic land teenage striker from Sligo Rovers as long-term contract revealed
By Matthew Elder
Saturday, 8th January 2022, 8:23 pm
Updated
14 hours ago
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/johnny-kenny-celtic-land-teenage-striker-from-sligo-rovers-as-long-term-contract-revealed-3520214
The 18-year-old has agreed a five-year contract with the Parkhead club after opting to turn down a rival offer from Hibs. It is believed Celtic paid a fee in the region of £125,000 for the youngster which includes add-ons and a sell-on clause.
Kenny is one of his country’s rising talents after finishing fifth in the goalscoring charts in his League of Ireland debut season last year with 11 goals and three assists helping Sligo to a third placed finish.
He is the fourth signing of the January window for Ange Postecoglou’s side after the triple signing of J-League trio Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi.
Kenny took to Twitter following the announcement to post: “Delighted to join a massive club like this.”
Kenny follows fellow Republic of Ireland youth international Liam Scales, who joined from Shamrock Rovers in the summer window, in making the move to Celtic Park.
It is likely Kenny will join the Celtic B team in the first instance and ply his trade in the Scottish Lowland League while working with the Celtic coaching staff to develop his game.
Who is Johnny Kenny, the Shamrock Rovers kid on-loan from Celtic who is on fire in Europe
Former Ireland Under-21 striker Johnny Kenny is currently joint-fifth in the Europa Conference League goal charts – one behind Chelsea’s Joao Felix.
https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/soccer-news/who-johnny-kenny-shamrock-rovers-34211636
Sport
ByMark McCadden
23:16, 28 NOV 2024Updated23:29, 28 NOV 2024
Shamrock Rovers’ head coach Stephen Bradley celebrates after the game with Johnny Kenny (Image: INPHO/Ryan Byrne)
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Shamrock Rovers have 21-year-old striker Johnny Kenny to thank for their latest sensational Europa Conference League result.
His 55th minute equaliser cancelled out Rapid Vienna’s early opener and earned Rovers their eighth point of an incredible campaign that shows no sign of slowing down.
Rovers spot in the knockouts is all but guaranteed, with the big question now whether they can push on for automatic last-16 qualification or whether it’s a play-off spot instead.
Kenny’s goal added another €133,000 to Rovers’ swelling prize money pot – and it also ended Rapid’s 100 percent record in the Conference League.
The Hoops are one of only six teams out of 36 in the competition to still be unbeaten after four games and are currently 10th in the table, ahead of games at home to Bosnian side Borac Banja Luka and away to Chelsea.
And it’s thanks in no small part to Kenny who, on Thursday night, added to the goals he scored against TNS and Larne. In total he has five goals in Europe so far this season, with three coming in the league phase of the Conference League.
That puts him joint-fifth in the goal charts, just one behind Chelsea’s Joao Felix.
But who is Johnny Kenny? Born in Sligo to a former footballer (his dad Johnny Kenny senior is a Sligo Rovers legend), he signed for his hometown club and made his first-team breakthrough there.
After one full season in senior football with the Bit O’ Red, he was snapped up in January 2022 by Celtic, then managed by Ange Postecoglou.
Aged just 18, he was sent out on loan to Queens Park without making a first-team appearance for the Bhoys. That spell in the Scottish Championship saw him play 12 times, but only twice as a starter, during the first half of the 2022/23 season.
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Next up was a loan move back to the League of Ireland, where he signed for Shamrock Rovers for the 2023 campaign.
He scored six goals in 36 appearances, while it wasn’t long into his time with the Hoops when he made his Ireland Under-21 debut, scoring in a 2-1 friendly win against Iceland.
Hoops boss Stephen Bradley saw enough in Kenny to request another year-long loan deal – and the Bhoys obliged.
This time around, Kenny has been more prolific, with 13 league goals in 29 appearances and five in Europe.
What happens next is unclear. Kenny still has two games left in the Conference League before his latest loan spell expires, and Rovers are eager to keep him.
The player admitted earlier in the year that contact with Celtic had been “minimal”. His European form might change that.
Former Shamrock Rovers player Ronan Finn said after the Rapid Vienna game, while on punditry duty with Premier Sports, that Kenny was a different player to the one that arrived at Rovers two years ago.
“He has evolved so much since I played with Johnny two years ago,” said Finn.
“You see him now and he is a different animal to what he was then. He came in, he was raw, he was young, he would have learned off Rory (Gaffney) and Aaron (Greene), two really astute centre-forwards, being in the League of Ireland all their years.
“So he learned off them and as we’ve seen now on the European stage, physically he’s got stronger.”
And Hoops boss Stephen Bradley says there is more to come from the young forward.
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers delivers Johnny Kenny verdict after Irish striker’s debut
Former Shamrock Rovers loan star Johnny Kenny made his Celtic debut on Saturday, three years after joining Celtic from Sligo Rovers.
https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/soccer-news/celtic-boss-brendan-rodgers-delivers-34463418
Sport
ByMark McCadden
16:54, 11 JAN 2025Updated16:55, 11 JAN 2025
Johnny Kenny (Image: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
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Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers expressed his delight with debut star Johnny Kenny – after the Sligo native made an impactful cameo appearance in Saturday’s 4-1 win over Ross County.
Kenny was sprung from the bench in the 73rd minute as a replacement for fellow Irishman Adam Idah.
Kenny has had to be patient during his time at Celtic. After he joined from Sligo Rovers in January 2022, there was an initial loan spell at Queens Park, before he embarked on two season-long spells at Shamrock Rovers.
His incredible goalscoring form last year at home and in Europe convinced Rodgers to bring him back into the fold at Parkhead.
Kenny is joint-ninth in the Europa Conference League goalscoring charts thanks to his five league phase goals, including a memorable equaliser away to Rapid Vienna, while he finished the 2024 campaign with 20 goals in 38 appearances.
As for Saturday’s display against Ross County, Rodgers said: “On young Johnny, it’s a great day for him to make his debut for Celtic, it’s an amazing feeling for him.
“He came in a few years ago, he had to go away to get some experience on loan, he’s done very well at Shamrock and when we needed something different in the game he was able to come in and give us that. I’m so pleased for him.”
The game was poised at 1-1 when Kenny and McCowan were sent on – and Rodgers was happy with how quickly they warmed to the challenge.
“It’s what you want, because they sat freezing on the side, then they’ve got to come in and make an impact, and they do that,” he said.
“Luke does what he does. Obviously we were missing two guys on the sides who score a lot of goals so it was important that we wanted goalscorers on to the pitch and he can score a goal, Johnny has scored goals for Shamrock.
“So I thought both of them came in and added a freshness to the game for us.”
Saturday’s win has moved Celtic 18 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership for 24 hours at least.
“It’s very pleasing, because it’s not an easy thing to do at all, but it’s something that they train for every day – the standard and performance in training, the mind-set in training is so good,” Rodgers said.
“And then we take that into the game because one of the biggest failings in becoming successful is that your mind-set is not right or you have a negative mind-set, but this group haven’t.
“We message them, we train them, we work them to go out into very game to be the very best
“You see in days like today when it wasn’t all going their way and they get pegged back, they still have a response there and a fight to get the win.
“So we’re so, so pleased and obviously for the supporters as well, because the journey up here and to be in the freezing cold, so at least in the second half we were kicking down towards the supporters and they pull the ball into the net, and they can go away really happy.”
Johnny Kenny pays tribute to Brendan Rodgers for making Celtic ‘dreams come true’
Martin Crawford
Thu 23 April 2026 19:30, UK
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Johnny Kenny has paid tribute to Brendan Rodgers at Celtic.
Though he was signed under Ange Postecoglou in January 2022, Kenny didn’t make his Hoops debut until over three years later.
Reintroduced to the squad by Rodgers, the striker’s performances were rewarded by the then-Celtic manager with a new long-term contract.
Kenny says that he is “forever in debt” as a result.
Johnny Kenny ‘forever in debt’ to ex-Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers
On his Celtic breakthrough, Kenny told The Bolton News: “I went back and it was a world of dreams come true really.
“Brendan Rodgers took me in and treated me like I was one of his own.
“He gave me the opportunity away at Ross County when it was minus-eight degrees up in North Scotland to make my debut with 20 minutes to go when we were 1-1.
“I came on, got an assist and we won 4-1 and he I bedded me in from there. I won a Scottish Premiership with them last year, although unfortunately lost at the Scottish [League] Cup final.
“I have a Scottish Premiership medal and not everyone can say that and Brendan gave me so many opportunities through the summer.
“He rewarded me with a new long-term contract and I’ll be forever in debt to him.”
On the opportunity to play for the Hoops, Kenny said: “I couldn’t turn that opportunity down and went to Celtic.
“That was massive. I don’t think some people understand how big of a club it is, because it’s in Scotland, but it’s a massive, massive club.
“It would have taken a lot, a big club for me to just to up and go when I just turned 18. It was a challenge to go, but I totally enjoyed it. The changes were incredible, stuff I couldn’t even have thought of.
“Getting breakfast every morning, getting everything, and basically a full-time job, but not a job because it’s a privilege.
“Going and living in Glasgow from a little town, which is just so peaceful and so quiet, to one of the biggest cities out there it was a big change, but I loved it.”