Shamrock Rovers F.C. is delighted to announce the signing of striker, John McGovern, to the Hoops 2025 squad.
After a many weeks of negotiations, the club agreed a transfer fee with Dungannon Swifts which will remain undisclosed. This transfer is subject to subject to International and Domestic clearance which, when approved, would allow John be available for selection from July 1st, 2025.
John has attracted much interest in recent months but has been fully committed in his desire to play for Shamrock Rovers.
We have an interview with the player at the foot of this article
Speaking with shamrockrovers.ie, head coach, Stephen Bradley said:
We’ve signed John McGovern from Dungannon Swifts. He’s only 22 years of age. How long has he been on your radar?
“Over a year now. We were up quite a lot to watch John. We tried quite a bit over the last year to get him, but it wasn’t possible. John was at University and Dungannon weren’t ready to sell at that moment in time. So, it was a case of continuing to monitor John and thankfully we’ve got him in now. We could have moved in on other players in the previous window, but we wanted to wait on John as he was someone we’d monitored for quite some time. He fits the group, has a good age profile and we really like what he’s about. So we waited and now we got it done”
He arrives at Rovers with an Irish Cup winner’s medal having scored Dungannon’s goal in the final and had a very decent league goal return in the season just finished. Is he an out and out poacher or is there more to his style than scoring?
“There’s a lot more. I don’t think out and out poachers can play in this team, as silly as that sounds, I don’t think they can. There’s so much more we ask of our forwards to do and be involved in. So John isn’t just an out and out goal scorer. If you watch him, he’s got a bit of everything, he’s someone we really like and he’s a really good person and we can’t wait to get working with him.”
John will have had some time off following his season’s end after the Irish Cup final. How long before you’ll hope to have him involved in game action?
“He has a couple of weeks off after a long Irish League season, then he’ll be in with the group and can’t wait to get going”
John’s arrival really strengthens our forward options. Rory Gaffney, Aaron Greene and Michael Noonan are all scoring recently, you must be delighted at our forward depth now.
“Yes and we’ve also Danny Mandroiu and Graham Burke. The year Danny left, I think he was on over fifteen goals so want to get Danny back to that. That gives us real options up top and it’s what we need, different types. John McGovern will give us real depth in that area of the pitch and gives us another dimension. As I said, his age profile means he’s one for now, but also the future.”
John McGovern profile:
John McGovern is twenty two years old and from Newry. His position is centre forward.
In the 2024-25 season just finished in the Irish League for Dungannon Swifts, John scored 14 league goals in 29 appearances, having joined Swifts from his local club, Newry City.
John also scored the opening goal in the recent Irish Cup Final against Cliftonville, with Dungannon winning 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw after extra time.
He has recently completed his degree in Business and IT and is both a former Down inter-county GAA footballer and a former Under 21 international for Northern Ireland.
