Celtic tried to sign John McGinn when he was eight years old

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Celtic tried to sign John McGinn when he was just eight years old according to his big brother Stephen McGinn, the Scottish Sun reports.

McGinn, whose grandfather Jack had a spell as Celtic’s chairman, is currently at Aston Villa. However, he could have been a Celtic player many years ago if the Hoops had managed to sign him as a youngster.

“Celtic were desperate to get him”

“John was really talented at a young age and being a footballer was something he could picture himself doing. I know I’m his brother, but I always believed he’d get to the level he’s now at. Celtic were desperate to get him for years, from the age of eight to 12” Stephen McGinn said, as quoted by the Scottish Sun.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Celtic have tried to sign John McGinn. Back in 2018 Hibernian reportedly rejected three bids for the player from the Hoops. He ended up moving to Aston Villa, and has since become a key player for club and country.

McGinn is now valued at £30m according to the Newcastle Chronicle, so Celtic probably have some regrets about missing out on a player who does seem to be very talented.

No guarantee he would have been a Hoops regular

However, there is no guarantee that he would have been a first-team regular at Celtic. He might have struggled to replace the likes of Scott Brown, Callum McGregor and Olivier Ntcham in the Hoops line-up.

Therefore, even though it was a blow at the time that Celtic never managed to sign the player, it has to be said that it hasn’t stopped both parties from going from strength to strength.

McGinn has turned into an Aston Villa mainstay, whilst Celtic have continued the club’s domination of Scottish football.

Still, it is a bit of a pity that a player that the Hoops have tried to sign twice now never ended up at Celtic Park. These things happen in football though. Who knows, perhaps in the future Celtic will make it third time lucky.

In other news, some Celtic fans have responded to an encouraging Odsonne Edouard update.