Some Celtic players have definitely had a great international period over the last week or so. Although Callum McGregor can be rightly proud of his part in the Scotland national team which beat Spain in a tremendous night at Hampden Park, it’s some of the club’s forwards who have grabbed the headlines.
We saw Mikey Johnston in sparkling form in his debut for the Republic of Ireland against Latvia last week. He is certainly benefiting from his loan spell at Vitoria SC in Portugal and earned a second cap as a 77th minute substitute against France on Monday.
And new Celtic striker, Hyeon-gyu Oh, looked like he had scored a terrific goal against Uruguay minutes after coming on as a substitute. Sadly a long VAR check saw his strike and what looked like the South Korean equaliser, ruled out for offside.
But in the end it was 19-year-old Johnny Kenny who showed the others the way to goal. He featured for the Ireland Under 21s against Iceland on Sunday. He came on as a substitute towards the end of the match and made a pretty instant impact with a stunning strike some six minutes later. A quick run at the opposition defence after picking the ball up from a throw-in led to a low strike into the bottom corner.
Celtic forwards grab headlines during international break
Kenny joined the first-team squad in Austria for pre-season training before spending the first half of this season on loan at Queens Park. He is currently still away from Parkhead and on loan at Shamrock Rovers.
With all three of those forwards looking to continue their development whether it’s Johnston, Kenny on loan or Oh getting his chances in the first-team, the international experience and some great performances will have done their confidence no harm whatsoever.
That’s great news for the players and for Celtic. And let’s hope that all three are in the first-team mix by next season.