Johnston thriving under pressure with Celtic

Over the past 18 months, Alistair Johnston has learned to live with the relentless pressure on his young, promising career.

The Aurora, Ont., native’s soccer resume has grown exponentially since the beginning of 2022. The defender made a million-dollar move from Nashville FC to CF Montreal before the 2022 MLS season, started in the MLS Cup Playoffs and all of Canada’s group-stage matches at the 2022 World Cup, and then parlayed those performances into a December move to Scottish soccer giants Glasgow Celtic.

And in early January, the 24-year-old found himself preparing for his Celtic debut in one of club soccer’s historic rivalries: against Rangers at Ibrox Stadium. Johnston recently told TSN that the night before his debut, Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou offered him some advice.

“The manager pulled me aside a day before and said ‘Look, you just played in the World Cup. You’re more than ready for this. This won’t faze you. And these are the kind of nights that you live for, that you dream of. This is one of the reasons you signed for Celtic,’” Johnston said.

“He [Postecoglou] felt I was prepared, I felt – even though I hadn’t played a competitive match at that point in a month – I was prepared as well. Just walking out the tunnel, feeling the passion and how much it meant to the fans. Even the night before. We get to our hotel and there are fans lined up outside our hotel all night long and cheering as we drove off in the morning. You could just sense it was something bigger than football.”

Johnston has made eight starts since his Jan. 2 debut. He is already a reliable piece to the current Scottish Premiership leaders and is considered a fan favourite by the team’s notoriously passionate support.

Although Johnston acknowledges the expectations that surround the 52-time Scottish league champions, he enjoys seeing his game evolve under Postecoglou, who expects the Canadian fullback to contribute to Celtic’s passing and offensive play.

“I’ve tried to embrace it and the coaching staff has been really good with me with that – going through the video, understanding where I need to be, and lucky I’ve got some great fullbacks here that have shown me the ropes” Johnston said. 

Johnston’s emergence at Celtic is part of European club soccer’s growing acceptance of Canadian talent. Jonathan David is challenging for the French scoring title and is rumoured to be on the move next summer. So is Tajon Buchanan, who played a big part in Club Brugge’s run to its first appearance in the Champions League’s knockout round.

Stephen Eustáquio with FC Porto and Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies are still playing in the Champions League. Cyle Larin has moved on from a disappointing spell at Club Brugge, to immediately scoring for Real Valladolid in Spain’s La Liga.

Johnston thinks soccer in this country has evolved to a point where European clubs no longer look at the passport with preconceived notions of the limitations of Canadian players.

“That’s why it was so important for us to play not just in the 2026 World Cup but to make it to 2022,” Johnston said. “If we had just gone to 2026 because we’re hosting it, people would always still overlook us because ‘They’re hosting it, they got an automatic berth. There’s going to be 48 teams it’s [the competition is] diluted, it’s not the same tournament.’ For us to go out there and qualify for 2022 at the top of our group really turned some heads.”

One uncertainty that continues to hang over Canadian soccer is the absence of a collective bargaining agreement between the Canadian Soccer Association and its men’s and women’s teams.

On Thursday, the CSA released details of its proposed collective bargaining agreements hours before members of the women’s team testified in front of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

With Canada’s men set to play in the CONCACAF Nations League at the end of the month, Johnston said the men haven’t decided on a public gesture of solidarity with the women’s team, but insists there is complete support between both.

“We’ve been working hand-in-hand [with the women’s team], because we see ourselves as one big group just trying to get to the bottom of this – the deals that have been signed between Canada Soccer and CSB [Canada Soccer Business] not just for ourselves, but for the next generation, the youth teams ” Johnston said. 

“It’s not fair, as the game continues to grow – and it’s not just because of our men’s program but mainly because of our women’s team, especially over the last decade – that we understand where that money is going and why.”

Another potential issue for Canada’s men could be player availability ahead of this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. Apart from a month off following the 2022 World Cup, Johnston’s playing schedule has been relentless. He played the full 2022 MLS season while qualifying for, then playing in, the World Cup before jumping to the Scottish Premiership.

With so many of head coach John Herdman’s first-choice players also juggling the same schedule through much of the last year – and some of those players rumoured to be moving this summer – Herdman might not be able to select the same squad he did for the World Cup.

That challenge will grow as Canada’s international calendar fills up. In the next three years leading up to the 2026 World Cup, Canada’s men could play in twice in the  Nations League and Gold Cup, and potentially play in the 2024 Copa América.

Johnston won’t say yet if he will take the summer off, but is sure Herdman and his staff are planning ahead.

“This is going to be one of the biggest obstacles. When you start competing on multiple fronts and you want to start lifting trophies you need to show that you have the depth in the player pool,” Johnston said.

“And that is something I can really give kudos to our management here with Canada. They’ve already reached out and they’re trying to set up calendars because they understand the last thing they want from us [men’s team] is for us to feel completely mentally drained.”

For now, Johnston is focusing on his raising reputation at Celtic. Two weeks ago, he lifted his first trophy in Scotland when he started in Celtic’s 2-1 win over Rangers in the Scottish League Cup final. Celtic is also nine points ahead of Rangers in the league and has advanced to Scottish Cup quarter-finals, meaning the team could win its fifth domestic treble since 2017.

All those exciting challenges make Johnston feel like he is exactly where he should be at this point in his career.

“It’s different where in Montreal I could walk through the city and not get recognized, versus here – before I’d even kicked a ball in December, when I signed and I was just training with the team – I’d go downtown and grab a couple things, have a cap pulled on down low and a sweater on, and [Celtic fans came up] to me welcoming me to the ‘Biggest club in the world,’” Johnston said.

“You start to realize this is going to be bigger than anything I’ve ever experienced.”