Auston Trusty interview: On Celtic's dramatic title run and his USMNT World Cup dreams

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One is in his home city of Philadelphia, and the other is on Italy’s Amalfi coast. They are 4,000-plus miles apart, and they’re far from where he is now, but in a couple of days, all three venues are going to be bursting with Celtic fans. The Scottish Premier League title race has come down to the most dramatic of finales, with second-placed Celtic hosting leaders Hearts today (Saturday). It was Trusty who went up for the stoppage-time header with Motherwell’s Sam Nicholson in midweek that resulted in the controversial penalty award to Celtic that kept their championship challenge alive. In the cathedral-like silence of Celtic Park when stripped of its 60,411 supporters, it is hard to imagine the noise and intensity to come during the Hearts game. Trusty is soaking it all in, thinking about how fate has taken him to all three destinations in his football career so far, and where it may yet take him this summer. It’s been a long journey: from almost being released by the academy feeding his first professional club, Philadelphia Union of MLS, to coming to Europe and playing in the Premier League, the Champions League and the unforgettable chaos of an Old Firm derby. And he’s thinking of the long walk he took from the centre circle in one of the latter at Ibrox, the ground of his team’s bitter rivals Rangers, in March. It culminated in the American scoring a penalty kick in a cup-tie shootout that helped Celtic reach the final in pursuit of another potential trophy this month. It would all be overwhelming for most people. The tension of that spot kick, in front of thousands of snarling Rangers fans, or the prospect of lining up for his country at a largely-home-soil World Cup in a few weeks’ time. Except, and here’s the secret, Trusty has seen it all before. Rather, he imagined it all, in deep, vivid detail, while sitting in his childhood bedroom, dreaming of the type of career he has now carved for himself despite early rejection and doubt. Trusty is a master of manifestation, and he is not done dreaming. The Plough & The Stars is the Irish bar in Philadelphia which hosts the Plough Boys Celtic Supporters Club on matchdays, the fans bouncing deliriously to Gaelic music when Martin O’Neill’s team beat Rangers 3-1 last Sunday to keep their title bid alive. In Sorrento, it’s Chaplin’s Irish Bar, where Trusty began to realise the true size of the club he was about to join, as he holidayed on the Italian coast in summer 2024. Along with his then fiancee and now wife Emily, the defender popped in and began to feel that Celtic power. A couple of months later, in the Celtic Park boardroom, he signed for them, just feet from the club’s packed trophy cabinet. The latter is the first location Trusty takes The Athletic on a tour of his adopted home city, on a rare day off from training during the run-in to Celtic’s tumultuous campaign. “When you’re in talks, they send you a pamphlet called ‘Why Play for Celtic’,” says the 27-year-old, recalling how he joined the club from Sheffield United of England’s second-tier Championship. “It (the pamphlet) is all about how great the club is, the atmosphere, and what it means to people. “I was already pretty sure I wanted to come, but it definitely cemented it even more. There are quotes from Lionel Messi about how incredible the atmosphere is at Celtic Park.” We walk through the players’ tunnel that leads out to the pitch. Though unchanged in its dimensions since 1929, a recent addition to the tunnel are the engraved bricks; each purchased by fans in memory of Celtic-supporting loved ones who have passed on. As the players mentally prepare in that space just before kick-off, Trusty says his eyes occasionally take in those names and inscriptions. “You definitely notice it (the bricks),” he says. “This is everything to them (the fans). When I’m here, I’m just chilling at this point and thinking I’ll play my game, do my thing. I get excited, to be honest. That’s why you join a club like this. It’s not pressure. It’s more like, ‘How awesome is it for me to be in this position to walk out and have all these fans screaming?’. “They truly care. They dedicate their whole lives to being Celtic fans. I get to showcase what I do in front of these people.” As fate would have it, Celtic’s first game shortly after Trusty signed, and before he was ready to play, was at home against Rangers. “I had literally just joined (two days earlier), so I had the chance to sit back and take it in,” he says. “It was mind-blowing. We won 5-1 and everyone was bouncing up and down. It was so loud. I had goose bumps. “Then after that was a Champions League tie, when I made my debut. There was no easing in or getting antsy. I was just thrown in and embraced it.” Growing up in the western Philadelphia suburb of Media, a sports-mad Trusty was an ardent fan of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles (he wears a baseball cap with their logo on during our time together). He grew up understanding supporter culture that way, but coming to Scotland has reinforced its seismic power. “Philly is a working-class city as well, and the fans deeply care about their team,” he says. “When I was younger, on a Friday or Sunday night, one of the cool things to do was to go to the Eagles parking lot and tailgate outside. We couldn’t afford tickets to the game, so we’d just get dropped off and sit outside the stadium, listening to the fans inside. “When the game was done, we’d head home. I just wanted to be part of it. But in America, you’re not always born into supporting one club. In Glasgow, it’s in your blood. “At our awards ceremony last season, there was a special award for a 103-year-old supporter. He’s been a Celtic fan his whole life. Seen everything. Imagine the generations of Celtic fans that came from him, and they’re probably all going to the game together.” Celtic fans of that vintage will have countless memories, and the current season has made more. There have been four manager changes, the ongoing drama of chasing unlikely league leaders Hearts, and then that Scottish Cup quarter-final win at Ibrox on penalties that prompted supporters of both teams to invade the pitch. Police and fans were injured in the melee, and several arrests were made. Trusty had taken Celtic’s second of four kicks in that shootout, and the scenes after they triumphed left him astonished. “Often as a centre-back you’re last in line (on penalties),” he says. “We’d played 120 minutes (including a half-hour of extra time), you’re tired as hell and then the assistant coach is like, ‘Who’s taking pens?’. He goes: ‘OK, Ox (England international midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain) is going first. Trusty, two…’. I was like, ‘Say that again?!’. “I love taking pens, but here I was taking one in front of 60,000-plus fans, millions of people watching around the world, and it’s at their stadium. It had already been a super-toxic game and we’re shooting into their end. “But this was what I dreamed about as a kid. Seriously. I’d put myself in the craziest imaginary situations ever and I’d imagined this (kind of scenario). So you just pick your side and commit to it. “It helps that the ’keeper had no idea what I’d do — there was no prior information about my pens. “I was on a high for scoring that. We won and we’re celebrating, then next thing you know it’s, ‘Oh shoot, they’re actually storming the pitch. They’re fighting each other’. I thought, ‘I’d better get out of here’, and ran inside. Our masseur came into the dressing room with blood on him.” The spring drizzle has paused, so we head to Pollok Country Park. Glasgow’s largest public park, it offers countryside-like idyll in the city, and is somewhere the Trustys often bring their 13-month-old girl. We’re here to see the Highland cows, a herd of which were brought down from the north of Scotland to graze here 200 years ago. His daughter yelps delightedly as a calf wanders close to the fence. “Being a young family away from home, all you can do is support one another and lean into each other more,” Trusty says. They all love Glasgow life, but Trusty is aware that a professional football career asks a lot of a player’s loved ones, even as it brings rewards. He keeps that in mind as he bids to realise one of his major ambitions — playing in the World Cup. “God willing, I go,” says the 27-year-old, who has six appearances for the USMNT to date, including playing all 90 minutes of their most recent game against Portugal at the end of March. “I’d be so excited. I’m entering my prime, playing the best football I’ve played in my life and my mentality is strong. “It means everything: all the dreams, all the visualisations, all the days crying as a child. All the sacrifices my family made. Or my wife and daughter — taking them out of their home environment and away from their parents and grandparents. “It would make everything worth it.” He is a familiar face in Scotland after almost two years at Celtic, but it is a surprise that Trusty’s profile across the game is not bigger. His career has evolved fast since his move from Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids to Arsenal of the Premier League in summer 2022. The Londoners immediately loaned him to Birmingham City of the second-tier Championship, where the American was a near ever-present, starting 44 of the 46 league games and being voted the fans’ player of the season. “People underestimate what I’ve done,” Trusty reflects. “It takes a lot to keep going into new testing situations, to keep going relentlessly. From Philadelphia Union to Colorado (in 2019). Then overseas — never been to the UK before — to Birmingham City and the Championship. Without a doubt the hardest league: mentally, physically, emotionally. Anyone can win any game. You have to be on it for 46-plus matches (including cup competitions). “Then to play a whole season in the Premier League with Sheffield United (though it ended in relegation), next to Celtic to win trophies. It’s been so fast, and that’s not easy. A lot of players say they need a season to bed in somewhere and adjust to show their true level.” Manifest Destiny. The American Dream. Trusty is living those ideas, in a career built on hard-won resilience. We are at La Gelatessa, the Trustys’ favourite coffee and gelato spot in the city’s South side. They are regulars and greeted warmly, but he is treated like any other customer. That explains the appeal to the down-to-earth player, as does the exquisite gelato we order. On a bench outside, as mums with their toddlers drink coffee, Trusty is talking about his start in a sport he was mocked for playing as a youngster. He is the youngest of six siblings — four boys, two girls. They all played a mix of sports, including basketball, track and field athletics, soccer and lacrosse, and all got college scholarships. (Trusty had agreed to attend the University of North Carolina before deciding instead to join Philadelphia Union on a professional deal at age 18.) His sister Onnie was a youth soccer international. “I grew up in a family without much financial resources, so we saw sports as a good way to get college funded,” he says. “I’ve said before I used to get made fun of for playing soccer, so I wouldn’t really talk about it much. “When I signed pro, some people still didn’t know I played soccer.  The odds of coming from the U.S. and making it to play in the Premier League in England and then at one of the biggest clubs (Celtic) are pretty slim.” As he suggested in the tunnel at Celtic Park, Trusty rarely if ever feels nervous before games. Again, he puts it down to that visualisation habit. “As a kid, I would sit in my room and picture all the games I play in now,” he says. “Like the World Cup. I spent so much time thinking about playing in one, and I still do it — picturing what it’ll look like if I’m there. I guess it is manifesting. “It helps because sports are very emotional, and if you take the emotion out and just have that core of backing yourself, combined with the familiarity of having ‘seen it’ in your dreams, it works. Then the more you get the real, lived experience, you just get stronger and stronger.” Despite this, his career was almost derailed before it had properly begun. Ironically for a future Celtic hero, his saviour turned out to be a Rangers man. Trusty was a 15-year-old at the YSC academy just outside Philadelphia, a centre that develops young talents for the Union, the local MLS side, when he was set to be released. Enter Iain Munro, a Rangers and Scotland national-team player in the 1970s and 1980s who was coaching there and went on to become YSC director. “He heard they were going to cut (release) me and went to the meeting,” says Trusty. “He showed up and asked what they were doing, saw my name on the cuts list and said, ‘You’re not doing that’. “I was big, but I was growing into my body. All my mechanics weren’t fully there yet. It took me a bit to grow into my body. I was a good basketball player.” Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were his idols then (he chose North Carolina in the hope NBA icon Jordan might return to his alma mater while he was there). Soon, Trusty added footballers, including an iconic Brazilian, to his list of heroes. “My mom cleaned gyms and when she was working I would just train for free: either dribbling a basketball or kicking a soccer ball against the wall,” he says. “I remember learning about Ronaldinho through YouTube and loving his Nike Tiempo boots. At the academy, my first away trip was to a tournament in Dallas. “I don’t know why but I thought to myself, ‘What if I run into Ronaldinho? How crazy would that be?’. Then we got to the hotel and one of my team-mates texted me: ‘Dude, Ronaldinho is staying here’. “I wouldn’t advise this, but we knew what floor he was on, so we just camped at the elevator. I have a picture with him.” Trusty hopes he can one day become an aspirational figure for youngsters himself, and accordingly took a role as a board member at the YSC academy. “One of my biggest ‘whys’ is being that person for young people to look up to,” he says. “I have been in the trenches, and to the highs, and I can relate to what they’re feeling.” Next up is Park Terrace. One of Glasgow’s wealthiest suburbs, it’s known for its elegant Victorian sandstone townhouses and views over Kelvingrove Park, toward the University of Glasgow. Between the city centre and the vibrant Finnieston area, it is also home to some of the city’s footballers. Trusty does not live far away from where we stand to admire the skyline, and is used to being stopped around here and asked for selfies. “Our community has kind of been Celtic fans,” he says. “With the schedule, you don’t really have time to really live your life, so it’s hard for us to make a community outside of football, and being a person who is recognisable is interesting. But we’ve embraced Celtic fans and they’ve become our family.” The day The Athletic visits, he is driving a rental car while his own is being repaired. The work is taking longer than expected, and we joke that the mechanic might be a Rangers fan. “I love the passion and how much people care about football here,” Trusty says. “We got married here, our daughter was born here. So we’ll forever be tied to the place. We go back to the U.S. in the off-season and that’s our first home, but my daughter’s is Glasgow, Scotland. “I would never have thought that coming up — that one day I’d have a baby that’s born in Scotland.” When he goes back to America, Trusty says it is clear just how many Irish ex-pats across the nation support Celtic. He hopes he hears them cheering if he is selected in the World Cup squad. But the USMNT players have undergone training to ensure they are never hearing too much, or getting distracted in any big games that may await this summer. “Flow-state is important,” he says. “The best football is when you’re in it. You train so hard to get so good that you don’t need to think. “When I play, everything is instinct.  You don’t think about opening your body up, you just do it. You don’t even think about checking your shoulder, it’s happening naturally — your body just does it. The more you think, the more you make mistakes.” He describes how coaches at U.S. training camps used special flow-state analysis kits, with players wearing interactive headsets, which measure brainwave activity, and heart-rate monitors. “We do penalty simulations,” he explains. “You step up to take a pen and they can play this audio. When you’re not focused, the noise gets really loud and dissonant, and when you’re in flow it dips down to a very quiet hum. “You’re putting the ball down on the spot, it’s loud, you take a deep breath. Then you get yourself back into the flow-state and it dips again. Then if you lose focus in the run-up, it’s loud again. “So you practise it, and when I was taking the pen at Ibrox I was thinking of that device. It was a long walk to the spot, but I was locked in. I put the ball down, I don’t see one thing or hear one thing. “It’s like a commercial when the director switches the sound off. Just you and the ‘keeper.” Trusty is smart and articulate. He eventually got his university degree online while playing professionally, and has studied remotely at Harvard Business School. This has further enhanced his powers of focus. “In top-level football, you can’t relax,” he says. “It’s 90-plus minutes of intense focus and not losing a beat. Especially at centre-back. “If you lose a beat for a half-second, that’s a goal. These attackers are relentless. Look at Harry Kane the other night for Bayern Munich (during the Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain). The PSG defence was excellent, didn’t switch off, then they lost a beat for a second and then, boom, he scores. That’s the level.” Trusty’s eyes light up when he thinks about this. He relishes the prospect of playing in the Champions League again next season, with Celtic sure to be in its qualifying rounds in August no matter the result against Hearts today. This season, Celtic were knocked out of Europe’s elite club competition on penalties in the final round of qualifying. It was a dismal loss, after goalless draws home and away, to little-known Kazakhstan side Kairat Almaty, and manager Brendan Rodgers resigned two months later. The club’s former boss Martin O’Neill was brought back as interim manager, before the short and chaotic reign of Columbus Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy in December and January. O’Neill is now in interim charge again. “I was rooting for him (Nancy). I’d heard good things from guys who played for him,” Trusty says of the Frenchman, who took Columbus to the MLS title in 2023. “I also really wanted to see a person of colour excel in a predominantly white coaching environment. “People of colour are still dealing with an imperfect situation. So, for him coming into that world — not Celtic, but (European) soccer in general — you want him to succeed and create opportunities for others in the future. That’s always in my mind: in the States, my dad grew up in a still-segregated country. I heard the stories growing up, still do, and my brain still goes to that. “Wilfried came in during a tough, hectic time. We had a first-place game (against Hearts), a cup final (lost 3-1 to St Mirren in the League Cup) and a Europa League game all in one week. He’s a really nice guy, so I texted him when he left. I’m sure he was very emotional.” Trusty, after all, has also felt the knocks professional sport can deliver. But he is ready to continue using all that as fuel ahead of the biggest period of his career yet. “I am not giving myself any excuses or reason not to achieve,” he says. “I guess it’s about, ‘How bad do you want it?’. I’ve hired a (personal) chef, I’ve bought into every recovery element I can. There are things as an athlete you can’t control, but there are plenty you can: mind-set, physical body, preparation, skill set, recovery. “One thing I do for inspiration is think of the moments when I’ve been doubted; crying to myself as a kid and thinking, ‘I have two options: either quit and never play again, or I can be the best god***n player in the world’, and I decided to try and be the latter.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms