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.
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.
This was by far the toughest test for the Hoops - particularly as they are now out of season and players have been away on a break.
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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.
Speaking after Kenny’s goal in Vienna, Bradley said: “He's disappointed, he should have two or three tonight. The one at the end and the one in the first five minutes, he usually scores them.
“But he's a player that has a really high ceiling. He is still developing, he is still learning, but he has a bright future.”
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