Canada’s World Cup right-back Alistair Johnston has opened the door to a potential move to Scottish Premiership champions Celtic in January, in quotes reported by the Daily Record.
After all the pre-match focus on Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David, it seems only fair the some overdue attention is given to the, well, less heralded and less well-known members of the Canada squad following their most unjust of 1-0 defeats to Belgium on Wednesday.
Porto’s Stephen Eustaquio did to Kevin de Bruyne what Kevin de Bruyne so often does to others. Kamal Miller was a colossus at the back. Club Brugge forward Tajon Buchanan, meanwhile, left the Belgian defence for dead on a number of occasions with some mesmerising footwork that wouldn’t look out of place in a Brazilian highlights reel.
Alistair Johnston, meanwhile, might have paved the way for a life-changing move across the Atlantic after his own performance; the rampaging right-back now ‘in talks’ with Celtic, per Fabrizio Romano.
Celtic hope to sign Canada and MLS right-back Alistair Johnston
“There is only so much I can say right now. But if an opportunity arises, sure,” the 24-year-old says when quizzed on those Celtic links.
“I am really happy at Montreal and we have a great thing going. But, at the same time, I want to test myself, and I want to see how high I can go.
“That’s something that, for all athletes deep down, is in our DNA. You want to be competitive and push yourself to play against the best and see how high you can go. We never want to look back at our career and have the, ‘What if?’ question. I’ve nightmares thinking about that.
“I want to push the boundaries of what is physically capable for me. If that means going overseas, and trying to see what kind of level I can play at, then so be it. We will see how the World Cup goes and we will see what happens after that.”
Johnston, who can play at centre-half, as a wing-back or as an orthodox right-back, produced four goals and four assists from a supposedly defensive role during his debut season at MLS outfit Montreal CF.
It is likely Celtic see him as a long-term replacement for Josip Juranovic.
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