Alistair William Johnston (born October 8, 1998) is a Canadian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a right-back for Scottish Premiership club

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and the Canada national team. Johnston previously played in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

for

Nashville SC Nashville Soccer Club is a Major League Soccer team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The team began play in the league in 2020 as a continuation of the USL club of the same name and plays its home matches at Geodis Park. It is principally owned ...

and

CF Montréal CF Montréal is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1992 as the Montreal Impact (french: Impact de Montréal, links=no), ...

, and in League1 Ontario for the Vaughan Azzurri.

Early life

Johnston was born in Vancouver to a Canadian father and Northern Irish mother from

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtownard ...

. His family moved to Montreal when he was four, where he began playing soccer with Lakeshore SC. The family again moved to Aurora, Ontario when he was seven. There, he played youth soccer with Aurora FC and Richmond Hill SC. He made his debut in the Canadian youth program at an under-18 camp in 2015, when he was 16. He played youth soccer with

ANB Futbol ANB Futbol was a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in King, Ontario. The club was founded in 2007, as a soccer academy, and added its semi-professional club in League1 Ontario in 2014. The club was one of the ten original founding m ...

, and earned a tryout with French club Troyes AC while there. In 2015, he joined Vaughan SC, helping them win the 2015 U-18/U-19 Disney Soccer Showcase, the 2015 OYSL U-18 League title, and the 2016 and 2017 U21 Ontario Cup.

College career

Johnston attended

St. John's University St John's University may refer to: *St. John's University (New York City) **St. John's University School of Law **St. John's University (Italy) - Overseas Campus *College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, St. Joseph, Minnesota and Col ...

for two years, before moving to Wake Forest University in 2018 in search of a bigger challenge both in soccer and academically. He switched positions from central midfield to right-back upon joining Wake Forest.

Club career

Early career

While in college, Johnston returned to Canada to play with League1 Ontario side Vaughan Azzurri from 2015 to 2019 during the college offseason. He played in the

2019 Canadian Championship The 2019 Canadian Championship was the twelfth edition of the Canadian Championship, contested from May 15 to September 25, 2019. Montreal Impact won their fourth Canadian Championship title (their tenth Voyageurs Cup) and earned a berth in the ...

for Vaughan Azzurri and was sent off in the second leg of the away goals defeat to the

HFX Wanderers HFX Wanderers Football Club, commonly known as HFX Wanderers, and spoken as Halifax Wanderers, is a Canadian professional soccer club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League at the top of the Canadian soccer le ...

Nashville SC

On January 9, 2020, Johnston was selected 11th overall by

in the

2020 MLS SuperDraft The 2020 MLS SuperDraft was the 21st edition of the MLS SuperDraft, SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The 2020 SuperDraft was the first SuperDraft held exclusively via conference call and web streaming. The first two rounds of the 2020 ...

. He officially signed with the club on February 25, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included Nashville withdrawing from the MLS is Back Tournament due to an outbreak amongst the team, his debut was delayed until August 12 against FC Dallas, coming on as a substitute. He made his first start four days later, also against Dallas. He helped the club reach the MLS Playoffs in their debut season, making 18 appearances. On September 22, 2021, Johnston scored his first MLS goal in a 5–1 victory over

Inter Miami Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami, known as Inter Miami CF or simply Inter Miami, is an American professional soccer club based in the Miami metropolitan area. Established in 2018, the club began play in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the 2 ...

. In December 2021, Nashville announced they were exercising Johnston's contract option, keeping him at the club through the 2022 MLS season.

CF Montréal

On December 23, 2021,

acquired Johnston from Nashville in exchange for a million dollars in allocation money, with Nashville also retaining a percentage of a transfer fee in a future sale. Montreal confirmed the deal on December 27 and announced Johnston had also signed a new contract taking him through 2023, with options for 2024 and 2025. He made his debut for Montreal on February 23, as a substitute against

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

side

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...

in the club's second leg of their

2022 CONCACAF Champions League The 2022 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2022 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League) was the 14th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 57th edition of the premier football club competition org ...

tie. Johnston scored his first goal for Montreal on May 14, scoring the second goal in a 2-0 victory against Charlotte FC.

Celtic

In December 2022, CF Montréal announced they had transferred Johnston to Scottish Premiership side

, taking effect January 1. He signed a 5-year contract with the Glasgow club. Upon the announcement, Johnston stated at a press conference that former Celtic and current CF Montréal midfielder

Victor Wanyama Victor Mugubi Wanyama (; born 25 June 1991) is a Kenyan professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Major League Soccer club CF Montréal and the Kenyan national team. Wanyama became the first ever Kenyan player to scor ...

was a major influence on his decision to move to ''the Bhoys.'' Johnston made his debut on January 2 in the Old Firm, starting against

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

and playing the entire match in a 2–2 draw. He then made his home debut a few days later, starting again in a 2–0 win against

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

. Johnston ended his first season at Celtic Park a success, with the club securing a domestic treble, winning the Premiership, the League Cup and the Scottish Cup.

International career

Johnston accepted an invitation to the Canadian senior national team camp in January 2021. He made his debut for Canada on March 25, 2021, as a 69th-minute substitute against Bermuda in the first round of

2022 World Cup qualifying The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualificationAlso the "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers". was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Parallel tourn ...

, and scored his first goal for Canada in the following match against the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

. In June 2021 Johnston was named to the 60-man preliminary squad for the

2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 16th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament was originally scheduled t ...

, and on July 1 he was named to the final squad. In November 2022, Johnston was called-up to Canada's squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

, where he played in all three of Canada's matches. In June 2023 Johnston was named to Canada's 23-man squad for the

2023 CONCACAF Nations League Finals 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

Personal life

His brother is soccer player

Malcolm Johnston Malcolm Johnston (born 19 October 1956) is a retired Australian jockey. Johnston was raised in the rural town of Forbes, New South Wales Forbes is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the Newell ...

who was selected in the first round of the

2023 MLS SuperDraft The 2023 MLS SuperDraft was the 24th edition of the SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. It was held on December 21, 2022, becoming the first SuperDraft to be held in December, but will retain the 2023 branding. The draft was conducted ...

by New York City.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Canada's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Johnston goal''.

Honours

Celtic * Scottish Premiership:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

* Scottish Cup:

* Scottish League Cup:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Alistair 1998 births Living people Soccer players from Vancouver Canadian men's soccer players Canada men's international soccer players Canadian people of Northern Ireland descent Major League Soccer players Men's association football defenders Nashville SC draft picks Nashville SC players Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's soccer players League1 Ontario players St. John's Red Storm men's soccer players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States ANB Futbol players Vaughan Azzurri players 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2022 FIFA World Cup players CF Montréal players Aurora FC (Canada) players Lakeshore SC players Celtic F.C. players