Alistair Johnston is living Kevin McKenna’s Celtic dream.
The new Hoops fans favourite is ticking all the boxes right now, having added Tynecastle to Ibrox and Hampden as places he’s put down a marker. The 24-year-old Canada star even netted his first goal for Ange Postecoglou’s side in the Premiership win at St Mirren a week after winning the Scottish League Cup against Gers. He then set up Kyogo Furuhashi’s goal in the 3-0 Scottish Cup victory over Hearts to reach the semis.
Johnston was handed a debut in the New Year derby at Ibrox a day after signing from Montreal for £3million but a top display kept his a starting spot. McKenna, who pulled on a Canada shirt 63 times, is impressed, especially after the defender was among the new breed who starred at the World Cup. McKenna left Canada as a teenager for Germany to join Energie Cottbus fuelled by his Scottish dad who had to overcome the five-hour difference in Calgary to watch Celtic.
But the former stopper’s four years at Hearts between 2001 and 2005 brought him closer Martin O’Neill’s superb Celtic side, where Kevin got to face Henrik Larsson, John Hartson and Chris Sutton. McKenna moved back to Cottbus and joined German giants Cologne but could have beaten Johnston to being Celtic’s first Canadian signing if Tony Mowbray followed through on a 2010 move.
With scouts watching, he turned in the best display of his career, netting the equaliser as he guided Cologne to a 3-2 win over Borussia Dortmund. McKenna, now 42, said: “I’d have walked to Celtic Park to sign for them. I was hoping I’d done enough to impress Mowbray and was gutted when the move didn’t happen, my dad even more so.
“He brought me up to be a Celtic fan and we’d watch games together. When I moved to Germany, the first thing I did was get Sky so I could watch Celtic. At Hearts, I’d even go Celtic’s big European games.
“I loved my time at Tynecastle. I grew up a lot in Scotland and it’s a great place for Alistair to learn.“
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