Auston Trusty Says Celtic Pamphlet Cemented 2024 Move
Auston Trusty said a Celtic pamphlet called Why Play for Celtic helped seal his move to the club after he and his then fiancée, Emily, saw the scale of the support in Sorrento in summer 2024. The 27-year-old defender joined Celtic from Sheffield United later in 2024, and the recruiting pitch stayed with him long after the talks ended.
Celtic Park Boardroom
“When you’re in talks, they send you a pamphlet called ‘Why Play for Celtic’,” Trusty said. “It (the pamphlet) is all about how great the club is, the atmosphere, and what it means to people.”
He added: “I was already pretty sure I wanted to come, but it definitely cemented it even more.” Trusty said the pamphlet included quotes from Lionel Messi about the atmosphere at Celtic Park, a detail that sat alongside the club’s own message about its reach and identity.
Trusty signed for Celtic in the Celtic Park boardroom in 2024 after leaving Sheffield United of England’s second-tier Championship. By then he had already started building a picture of the club beyond Glasgow, and the brochure arrived while that decision was still forming.
Sorrento and Chaplin's
The sharper test came in Sorrento, where Trusty and Emily visited Chaplin's Irish Bar in summer 2024. There, he said, he began to realise the true size of Celtic. The club’s reach was not limited to Scotland; he had already seen support in Philadelphia and along the Amalfi coast, and Sorrento gave him another example of how far that following traveled.
That matters because Trusty was not moving from one anonymous stop to another. He had already come to Europe after starting with Philadelphia Union in MLS, and he had played in the Premier League, the Champions League and an Old Firm derby before this move. The pitch from Celtic was aimed at a player who already understood a bigger stage, and the pamphlet was part of what tipped him toward it.
Trusty and Celtic’s reach
Trusty’s timing at Celtic has already put him in the middle of high-stakes matches. He scored a penalty kick in a cup-tie shootout at Ibrox in March that helped Celtic reach the final, and he was involved in a stoppage-time header with Motherwell’s Sam Nicholson in midweek that led to a controversial penalty award to Celtic.
That backdrop gives the Sorrento story a clear edge. Trusty did not choose Celtic on branding alone; he chose it after hearing the message, seeing the support with his own eyes and then living inside the pressure that comes with the club. The pamphlet helped get him there, but the scale of the crowd and the demands around the team have already become part of the job.
