Celtic have secured the services of experienced England international goalkeeper Sam Johnstone on a season-long loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, subject to international clearance. The 33-year-old arrives at Celtic Park to bolster the Scottish champions’ goalkeeping options alongside Finnish keeper Viljami Sinisalo and Scot Ross Doohan.
Johnstone brings more than 350 league appearances across England’s top flights, having begun his career at Manchester United in 2011 before spells at clubs including Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace. He spent the past two seasons with Wolves, making 17 appearances last term after joining the Midlands side in August 2024.
The keeper also has four senior caps for England, notably keeping a clean sheet in each of those international outings, with his most recent appearance coming in 2023. At Wolves, he lost his Premier League starting place in December and has not featured since their FA Cup defeat to Liverpool in early March, making a move to Celtic an attractive opportunity to reignite his campaign.
Speaking to CelticPlayer after completing his move, Johnstone said he was “buzzing” to join the club and eager to get started.
“I didn’t need convincing by anyone, but Joe Hart rang me the other day just to reiterate what a place this is, what a great group of lads and how the fans are unbelievable,” Johnstone said. “For someone like that to ring me up and reiterate again the size of the club and what it means to people, it just made me so excited to get here and get started.”
He added: “I think everyone knows the goalie groups are a tight-knit group. We work closely together every day and hopefully I can help Vil and he can help me, and we push each other and we support each other along with the other goalies and the goalie coaches.”
Johnstone also highlighted the pressure and expectation that comes with playing for Celtic.
“You hear about the size of the club, and you know about the size of the club, but just being here for a day, you notice how big the club is,” he said. “And the pressure to win, which is what I like – pressure to win, pressure to perform and we all want to win trophies. You hear about the atmosphere at the stadium and that’s something I can’t wait to play in front of.”
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill described Johnstone as a “quality keeper with excellent experience at the highest level” and said he would be a strong addition to the goalkeeping team.
“We are really happy to welcome Sam to Celtic,” O’Neill said. “He is a quality keeper with excellent experience at the highest level and I think he will be a very good addition to our goalkeeping team. He is really looking forward to joining Celtic, to add competition to our team and we are pleased to bring a goalkeeper of this quality to the club.”
Johnstone’s arrival adds proven top-flight pedigree to a goalkeeping department that previously featured Sinisalo, 24, and Doohan, 28, as the only senior options following Kasper Schemichel’s retirement at the end of last season. With Celtic competing domestically and in Europe, the loan deal provides experienced cover and competition as the season progresses.