Aidan Keena

Aidan Keena (born 25 April 1999) is an Irish footballer who plays as a forward for Sligo Rovers. He has previously played for St Patrick's Athletic, Heart of Midlothian, Hartlepool United, Queen's Park, Dunfermline Athletic and Falkirk.

Aidan Keena
Personal information
Full name Aidan Keena
Date of birth (1999-04-25) 25 April 1999
Place of birth Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland
Position(s) Forward
Club information
Current team
 Sligo Rovers
Number 9
Youth career
Mullingar Athletic
2015 Shelbourne
2016–2017 St Patrick's Athletic
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2017 St Patrick's Athletic 3 (0)
2017–2020 Heart of Midlothian 11 (0)
2018 → Queens Park (loan) 14 (8)
2018–2019 → Dunfermline Athletic (loan) 12 (4)
2020 Hartlepool United 8 (2)
2020–2022 Falkirk 32 (6)
2022– Sligo Rovers 6 (5)
National team
2015 Republic of Ireland U17 2 (0)
2016–2017 Republic of Ireland U18 4 (0)
2018 Republic of Ireland U19 1 (0)
2019 Republic of Ireland U21 2 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:15, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

Club career

St Patrick's Athletic

Keena, a member of the St Patrick's Athletic under 19's squad, was called up to the first team by manager Liam Buckley for pre-season in January 2017 despite being just 17 years old. He scored on his first team debut, in a 5–0 win over Bluebell United in a friendly.[1] Keena made his first official appearance in senior football on 24 February 2017 when he came on as a 67th-minute substitute in the Saints opening game of the season against Bray Wanderers. With Pats trailing 2–0, Kenna set up Graham Kelly for an 85th-minute goal before being shown a straight red card in the 91st minute for a late tackle on Dylan Connolly.[2] Keena went on to make four more appearances for the club (two league and two League Cup) in the 2017 season, with the last of those being a Dublin Derby against Bohemians on 16 June 2017.

Heart of Midlothian

Keena was signed by Heart of Midlothian in August 2017.[3] After impressing first team staff with his goalscoring form for the reserves, he was called up to the first team and made his debut as a late substitute in a 1–1 draw versus Partick Thistle at Tynecastle Park on 19 November 2017. Keena was loaned to Scottish League One club Queen's Park in January 2018.[4] In August 2018, he joined Dunfermline Athletic in the Scottish Championship on a season-long loan.[5]

After a promising few months with Dunfermline, Keena was recalled to Hearts in January, scoring his first goal for the club in a 4–0 victory against Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup.[6]

Hartlepool United

Keena left Hearts in January 2020 and signed for Hartlepool United. Prior to this,Keena had unsuccessful trials with Darlington and Berwick Rangers.[7]

He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 win against Stockport County on 25 January 2020.[8] It is not clear if Keena ever played for Hartlepool.

Falkirk

After leaving Hartlepool, Keena returned to Scotland and signed a two-year deal with Scottish League One side Falkirk on 5 August 2020.[9] On 24 January 2022, it was announced that Keena had left Falkirk by mutual consent after 8 goals in 38 appearances for the club.[10]

Sligo Rovers

On 24 January 2022, Keena signed for League of Ireland Premier Division club Sligo Rovers.[11] Keena made his debut on 25 February 2022, scoring the winner in a 2–1 victory away to his first senior club St Patrick's Athletic.[12] On 14 March 2022, he scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 win over Finn Harps at The Showgrounds.[13] Keena was named League of Ireland Player of the Month for March 2022, following a great start to life at his new club, scoring 5 goals in his first 6 appearances.[14] Keena is currently joint top scorer of the League of Ireland Premier Division with 5 goals.

International career

Keena has represented the Republic of Ireland at Under-17, Under-18 and Under-19 level.[15][16][17] On 6 November 2019, Keena was announced in Stephen Kenny's Republic of Ireland U21 side for the first time, for their European Under-21 Championship qualification games against Armenia U21 & Sweden U21.[18]

Career statistics
As of 31 March 2022[19][20]
Season Club League National Cup[lower-alpha 1] League Cup[lower-alpha 2] Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
St Patrick's Athletic 2017[19] League of Ireland Premier Division 3000200[lower-alpha 3]050
Heart of Midlothian 2017–18[21] Scottish Premiership 100000—10
2018–19[22] 5021101[lower-alpha 4]192
2019–20[23] 5000403[lower-alpha 4]3123
Total 110215044275
Queen's Park (loan) 2017–18[21] Scottish League One 148——2[lower-alpha 5]0168
Dunfermline Athletic (loan) 2018–19[22] Scottish Championship 124——0[lower-alpha 6]0124
Hartlepool United 2019–20[19] National League 82———82
Falkirk 2020–21[19] Scottish League One 1111021—142
2021–22[19] 21510101[lower-alpha 6]1246
Total 326203111388
Sligo Rovers 2022[19] League of Ireland Premier Division 6500—0[lower-alpha 7]065
Career total 8625411017511032
  1. Includes FAI Cup & Scottish Cup
  2. Includes League of Ireland Cup & Scottish League Cup
  3. Appearances in the Leinster Senior Cup
  4. Appearances for Hearts under-21s in the Scottish Challenge Cup in which age-restricted sides from the Scottish Premiership clubs compete against senior clubs
  5. Appearances in the Scottish League One play-offs
  6. Appearances in the Scottish Challenge Cup
  7. Appearances in the UEFA Europa Conference League

Honours

Individual

References
  1. "Extratime.ie - Live Updates - Friendly - Bluebell United -v- St. Patrick's Athletic". Extratime.ie.
  2. "League Report: St Patrick's Athletic 1 - 2 Bray Wanderers".
  3. "Youngster Keena joins Hearts Heart of Midlothian - News". Heartsfc.co.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  4. "New faces give squad a boost". Queen's Park FC. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  5. "Dunfermline sign Robbie Muirhead, Malaury Martin & Aidan Keena". BBC Sport. 31 August 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  6. "Hearts 4 – 0 Auchinleck Talbot". BBC Sport. 10 February 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  7. "Aidan Keena: Striker moves from Hearts to Hartlepool Utd". BBC Sport. 10 January 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  8. "Hartlepool United 2-0 Stockport County". BBC Sport. 25 January 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  9. "Aidan Keena Signs from Hartlepool United". Falkirk FC. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  10. "KEENA DEPARTS FOLLOWING MUTUAL CONTRACT TERMINATION". Falkirk Football Club. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  11. O'Hehir, Paul (24 January 2022). "Sligo Rovers sign striker Aidan Keena from Falkirk". Irish Mirror.
  12. Goulden, David (25 February 2022). "Former Saint Keena haunts old club on Sligo debut" – via www.rte.ie. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. "Aidan Keena the hat-trick hero for Sligo Rovers". independent.
  14. Team, The42. "Sligo Rovers striker Aidan Keena earns Player of the Month award". The42.
  15. "Aidan Keena". Uefa.com. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  16. "St Patrick's Athletic FC". Facebook.com. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  17. "Congrats to Aidan Keena on being called up to the Ireland under 18 squad for their upcoming friendlies #InternationalSaints". Twitter.com. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  18. "Kenny names weakened squad for crucial Euro qualifiers". 6 November 2019.
  19. "Republic of Ireland – A.Keena". Soccerway. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  20. "Aidan Keena | Football Stats | Falkirk | Age 22 | Soccer Base". www.soccerbase.com.
  21. "Games played by Aidan Keena in 2017/2018". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  22. "Games played by Aidan Keena in 2018/2019". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  23. "Games played by Aidan Keena in 2019/2020". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
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