David Beckham was one of the best footballers of his generation and one of the most recognisable players in the history of the game. During the course of his career, he represented clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, LA Galaxy and more, while also playing for the England national team on more than 100 occasions. Thus, a Celtic player being compared to him will be music to the ears of the supporters.
Celtic have recruited brilliantly in recent times. And one of the players that they brought in recently was Alistair Johnston from CF Montreal.
It has proven to be a major success already. Johnston had a big task on his hands, replacing Croatian international, Josip Juranovic, who left for Union Berlin. But the Canadian has not missed a beat and some fans even feel that he has improved Celtic at right-back.
Of course, time shall tell if that is the case or not. One of his former coaches has compared him to David Beckham recently. As reported by the Daily Record, Steve Guppy said:
"“Let’s get a little formula of what you need to do every time you cross a ball – almost like on autopilot. Alistair is not really one who will take a player on but if you give him time he’s very similar to David Beckham.“Don’t get me wrong, David Beckham was a fabulous player. But David Beckham wasn’t great at beating players either. But if you gave him time and he had a chance to cross he almost went into autopilot.“If you watched him cross there was a little pattern of things he did. And that’s what we saw in Alistair as things developed and he got a little more confident. When he had the time it was almost like a chain of events would unfold that we worked on in training. Alistair was such a quick learner that he was then doing it in games far quicker than most.”"
Celtic player compared to Beckham by one of his former coaches
Beckham was without doubt one of the best crossers in the history of the game. Thus, Johnston being compared to him is high praise indeed.
It remains to be seen how Johnston’s career turns out at Celtic Park. There is no doubt that he has made a superb start though. It is not just his quality but the desire he shows every time he gets onto the pitch, that has won over the supporters.
There seems to be very little doubt that Celtic have pulled off yet another transfer masterstroke. One would be hoping that Johnston remains at the club for the foreseeable future because he has the potential to be a centre-piece of this team for years to come.