Anthony Ralston (born 16 November 1998) is a Scottish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who plays as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

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 Foo ...

and the

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. ...

Club career

Part of the youth system at

since the age of eight, Ralston made his debut for the first team on 11 May 2016, in a 2–1 defeat against St Johnstone. He scored his first goal for the club in a 5–0

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existe ...

win over

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. ...

on 8 August 2017. He made further appearances early in the 2017–18 season, including a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

match against

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, but then suffered a knee injury in late September. Ralston signed a long-term contract with Celtic in December 2017, with the deal due to run until the end of the 2021–22 season. On 16 March 2018, Ralston joined Dundee United on an emergency loan until the end of the 2017–18 season, a side challenging for promotion from the Championship up to the Premiership. He made his debut on 20 March, in a 3–2 loss in the league to Queen of the South. In 15 appearances, he helped United reach the semi-final play-off for promotion, scoring two goals, albeit the side lost to

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in the semi-final play-off. On 2 September 2019, Ralston moved to St Johnstone on a season-long loan. Upon his return from the St Johnstone loan, Ralston played in only one game for Celtic during the following season, coming in a 0–0 draw against

when several squad regulars were missing due to a

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isolation issue, and when centre-half

Kristoffer Ajer Kristoffer Vassbakk Ajer (born 17 April 1998) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Brentford and the Norway national team. Ajer has previously played for Start in the Tippeligaen and Celtic in the Scottish ...

then loanee Jonjoe Kenny were selected at right-back ahead of him following the sale of

Jeremie Frimpong Jeremie Agyekum Frimpong (born 10 December 2000) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a right wing-back for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and the Netherlands national team. Club career Manchester City Frimpong joined Manchest ...

, it appeared his time with the club would be coming to an end. At the start of the 2021–22 season under new manager

Ange Postecoglou Angelos Postecoglou ( el, Άγγελος Ποστέκογλου, ; born 27 August 1965) is an Australian association football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Scottish Premiership club Celtic. Born in Greece, he move ...

, Ralston signed a contract extension until May 2022 and started in both legs against

FC Midtjylland FC Midtjylland (, "Central Jutland") is a Danish professional football club based in Herning and Ikast in the western part of Jutland. The club is the result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad. Midtjylland competes in the Danish Supe ...

in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. Media outlets praised his performances in the early part of the season, following goals against Hearts and

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

. On 2 November 2021, he signed a new long-term contract with Celtic, keeping him at the club until 2025. On 15 December 2021, Ralston headed in a 97th minute winner against Ross County in a dramatic 1-2 away victory for a Celtic side that was reduced to 10-men at Victoria Park. This sealed a result which kept Celtic within touching distance of Rangers in the

, who were only four points above Celtic in the league table at that time. It has been looked back on as one of the most important moments in Celtic going on to win the 2021-22 Scottish Premiership title.

International career

Ralston was involved with several Scotland youth squads up to the under-21s. Selected for the Scotland under-20 squad in the

2017 Toulon Tournament The 2017 Toulon Tournament (officially french: 45ème Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) was the 45th edition of the Toulon Tournament. The tournament was named after Maurice Revello, who started the tournament in 1967 a ...

, Ralston played as Scotland beat Brazil under-20s 1–0, which was the nations first ever win against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

at any level. The team went on to claim the bronze medal. It was the nations first ever medal at the competition. Selected for the under-21 squad in the

2018 Toulon Tournament The 2018 Toulon Tournament (officially french: 46ème Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) was the 46th edition of the Toulon Tournament. It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 26 May to 9 June 2018. Engl ...

. They lost to Turkey under-21s in a penalty-out and finished fourth. In November 2021 he was called up to the senior squad for the first time ahead of a 2022 World Cup qualifier against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, as a replacement for the suspended Nathan Patterson. He made his international debut in the match as a late substitute for

Kieran Tierney Kieran Tierney (born 5 June 1997) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a left-back or centre-back for Premier League club Arsenal and the Scotland national team. Tierney came through the Celtic youth system and made his first te ...

. On his second Scotland appearance he scored his first international goal during a Nations League group match against Armenia, assisted by

Stuart Armstrong Stuart Armstrong (born 30 March 1992) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Southampton and the Scotland national team. Armstrong began his professional career with Dundee United, making his debut in 2010 and ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Celtic *

: 2021–22 *

: 2021–22

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ralston, Anthony 1998 births Living people Footballers from Bellshill Scottish footballers Association football defenders Scotland international footballers Scotland under-21 international footballers Scotland youth international footballers Scottish Professional Football League players Celtic F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Queen's Park F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players