Luis Palma finds Celtic superstardom Stateside but media frenzy has been gatecrashed by Fighting Irish – USA diary

Another day, another city, and another half a stone fired on. America is a blast, but it doesn’t half hit the waist line.

It’s just as well Celtic have their own chef and dieticians because if your left to your own devices in this country you could do a fair bit of damage. The Hoops used to have the Holy Goalie. I’ve turned into the Roly-Poly Old Goalie over the last week Stateside. Chapel Hill was a fantastic pit stop and the pre-match grub was top notch. North Carolina is know for its barbecue food and, sure enough, the pre-match scran was sensational pulled pork with local special, vinegar sauce. It was off the charts.

It was just as well the severe weather warning didn’t hold the game up any longer the other night or I would have been too heavy for the lift. It’s been funny seeing the media reaction out here. Back in North Carolina, they were genuinely thrilled to have Celtic and Man City in town. Chapel Hill can be quite sleepy in the summer when Michael Jordan’s old university is out.

But the place was bouncing for a couple of days and the local news were all over it. Some silly anchor pronounced the team like it started with a K, but they could be forgiven and they did a lot of talking to fans who’d come from all over the country, while the town chiefs were saying the game made the local economy more than 10 million bucks.

A chunk of that was my food bill. It’s also been strange seeing some other media outlets at work – especially around Luis Palma. There were Honduras journos in Washington asking Brendan Rodgers a ton of questions about there hero, but it was another level in North Carolina. A whole pack of hacks were in town to talk to the wide man and there were about half a dozen pitch invasions during