Alistair Johnston snubs Lionel Messi as Celtic star sets his focus despite 'exciting' date with superstar

Alistair Johnston isn’t the type of player to lose his focus. And as Celtic enter the final stretch of their SPFL campaign, his eyes are fixed firmly on the prizes.

A Premiership title and Scottish Cup are still up for grabs and the Canadian has got used to winning since he arrived in Glasgow. So he’s unlikely to get distracted in the run-in. But this time maybe Johnston could be forgiven for letting his mind drift towards the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta this summer. After all, he has the small matter of Lionel Messi and the World Cup holders waiting for him on June 21.

And having never faced the greatest player to walk the earth before in his career, it would be easy for Johnston to get side-tracked. He’ll play for Canada in the opening game of the 2024 Copa America against Argentina in front of 80,000 Messi fanatics. For Johnston – and his whole country – it’s going to be an incredible occasion to kick off the tournament.

And he has been well warned about the difficulty of keeping tabs on Inter Miami’s Argentine icon. Johnston said: “It’s exciting, isn’t it? We’ve got Argentina in the first game, which is great. But I’m kinda hoping Messi stays on the other side of the pitch! The tournament is in America but it will be 99 per cent full of Messi jerseys, so that’ll be fun. It’s the first game of the tournament so I think they’re expecting Messi to put on a show.

“That’s why they’ve made it the first game. And yeah, it’s my job as a defender to hopefully try and quieten that down. But we’ll be ready for 80,000 fans screaming his name.

“I’ve seen it already in the MLS, just how mental it is over there, and it’ll be no different in Atlanta. I have never played against Messi before but I have a couple of friends who