A Celtic legend is the reason John McGinn wears the number seven shirt at Aston Villa

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When the draw was made for Celtic to face Aston Villa in the Champions League, one of the first names that popped into everyone’s head was, John McGinn.

The reason is simple, McGinn is a boyhood Celtic fan and now the captain of Aston Villa, so it was fitting he was going to play against the Bhoys on Europe’s biggest stage.

What is interesting is that McGinn could have joined Celtic, before he donned the Villa colours in 2018, but a fee couldn’t be agreed between the Scottish champions and Hibernian.

Ironically enough, Brendan Rodgers was in his first spell as manager at Parkhead and has since returned where he will face the all-action midfielder.

Celtic and Villa have secured a play-off spot and both still have a chance to finish in the automatic places, but they need other results to go in their favour.

McGinn returned from injury during Villa’s 1-1 draw against West Ham United on Sunday and you suspect that Unai Emery will start his skipper.

It will be some moment for the Scotland international to walk out of the Villa Park tunnel, with Celtic skipper and mate, Callum McGregor on the other side, and face the club of his dreams.

Why does John McGinn wear the number 7 shirt?

McGinn has donned the number seven shirt throughout his career, including at Villa Park and for his national side.

But there is a reason and meaning behind that famous number for the all-action midfielder, as he shared that he wears it because of one, Henrik Larsson.

The King is perhaps Celtic’s greatest player of the modern era and he was at the peak of his powers when McGinn was growing up as a kid.

So, it’s no surprise that McGinn, not only wears that number because of Larsson, but he also loved ‘everything about him’, as he told the Premier League’s YouTube channel in 2023.

“Is Henrik Larsson the reason I wear the number seven? Yep, that’s the reason,” shared McGinn.

“I always loved the number seven growing up. I always had Larsson seven on the back of my top. I don’t play like him, but I just like having the number seven.”

McGinn then added: “I just wanted to be a Celtic player growing up. I wanted to be Henrik Larsson. Everything about him. I wanted to be Henrik.”

Henrik Larsson’s numbers for Celtic

The recent departure of Kyogo Furuhashi has brought up the topic of Larsson and how the Japan star is the best since the King.

That will forever be up for debate, but one thing that isn’t up for debate is that Larsson is the absolute best.

That rising star who came from Feyenoord in 1997, with his famous dreadlocks, wrote his name in history that will be remembered forever.