HSBC prides itself in being known as 'The World's Local Bank'.
Could the same also be said for Celtic? They are 'The World's Local Football Team' for all intents and purposes. The archetypal local Scottish football club with a global reach.
According to Wikipedia, Celtic has developed a fanbase in over 60 countries around the world. They can boast over 800 supporters' clubs and a worldwide fan base of around nine million thanks largely to the Irish and Scottish diaspora.
Celtic have embarked upon a pre-season tour of the USA having touched down in Washington DC.
It's hardly a new phenomenon for the men in green and white to tour America. If you know your history this will be the 11th time Celtic have gone Stateside for pre-season tours after doing the same in 1931, 1951, 1957, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1981, 2001, 2004 and 2010.
They also ventured over to Philadelphia to take on Real Madrid in a money-spinning friendly at Lincoln Field in August 2012 where Neil Lennon's men lost 2-0 to Jose Mourinho's Los Blancos.
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers is fully aware of the significance and long-term benefits of such tours of football duty. That's why the Irishman is delighted to bring his team on yet another trip over the Atlantic to spread the good gospel of Celtic in the good ole US of A. The 51-year-old knows that Celtic will be cheered on by a fervent and fanatical supporter base, who despite residing over 4,100 miles away, hearts still lie in Glasgow's east end.
The USA tour is a marketing dream as it will help Celtic pour even more finances into the ever-swelling coffers. It also allows the team to travel to far-flung and exotic places like Japan last summer as well as Australia in order to connect with supporters who feel detached from the club due to geography alone.
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Rodgers said: "Trips to the USA as well as Japan and Australia the year before that are so important to a club like Celtic. I think the opportunity to travel worldwide is absolutely brilliant. It's great for the players and the staff.
"I think Celtic is an iconic club. It's a club that's supported worldwide. You go to an event in New York and you always think, it was a local team that was there. It's incredible. I'm meeting supporters out there who have to watch Celtic from afar and they tell you that they don't get the chance to see the team that often, which is really special.”
“So, the chance for us to go to the USA is a great privilege. It’s a great country, but it also shows the esteem in which Celtic is held throughout the world.
“So, it's a real joy to take the team around the world and this will be another fantastic trip for us.”
Last season's Scottish champions and Scottish Cup winners will play three games in America. Rodgers's sides' first match in their tour of the United States will see them take on MLS outfit D.C. United in the early hours of Sunday, June 21.
The game will be played at D.C. United's home ground, the Audi Field, a 20,000-seater stadium shared by D.C. United, D.C. Power FC and Washington Spirit; as well as American football side the DC Defenders.
The second match on their American tour will pit Celtic against formidable opposition in the share of Pep Guardiola's English Premier League champions, Manchester City with Erling Haaland et al in their ranks. This game will take place at the University of North Carolina's Kenan Stadium, a college football arena in the state's Chapel Hill area with a capacity of 50,500.
Ironically The last time Celtic played Manchester City was during the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League group stages, when Brendan Rodgers' side held Pep Guardiola and his men to a point at home and away. Moussa Dembele's double and a Raheem Sterling OG (forced by Kieran Tierney) saw the sides share an enthralling Matchday One clash at Celtic Park. A Patrick Roberts strike at the Etihad saw the final game end in a 1-1 draw.
Celtic's third and final match on their USA Tour 2024 is against Chelsea. The game will be played at the Notre Dame Stadium, a 77,622-seater stadium that's home to the Notre Dame University Fighting Irish American football team.
Having already faced Ayr United and Queen's Park in pre-season friendlies earlier this month things will get ratcheted up a notch as Celtic take a huge step up in opposition class. The tour in the USA is vital for Celtic in terms of their pre-season preparations. Match-ups against Manchester City and Chelsea will give them an early taster of the calibre of clubs they could face in the newly revamped Champions League tournament.
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It will also allow time for the team to gel, for new players (like Kasper Schmeichel and Sinisalo although Paulo Bernardo and Adam Idah are supposedly en route) to assimilate and integrate, and for the manager to fully assess the squad’s strengths and weaknesses ahead of the big Scottish Premiership kick-off against Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on Sunday, August 4.
Rodgers said: "I've been to America a few times, Liverpool and whatever, and it's a great country to go and play football in.
"We've got really good games out there. We're playing in some iconic stadiums against great teams and, yeah, really looking forward to it.
“We have some great tests against Manchester City and Chelsea. They are some really good tests. So, fingers crossed we'll do okay."
In recent times Celtic haven't fared all that well when they've gone Stateside. In 2003, Martin O'Neill's Celtic took part in a two-game US tour in Seattle and Cleveland, where they lost one and won one.
These games were held as part of The Champions World Tournament. Celtic went down 4-0 to Manchester United at the Seattle Seahawks Stadium although they fared much better in another American Football stadium – the Brown’s Stadium - home to the Cleveland Browns as Celtic beat Boca Juniors 2-0.
In 2004, early panic buttons were being pressed as Celtic returned to America as part of The Champions World Tournament again and lost three of four matches against glamour European opposition. Celtic were defeated 4-2 by Chelsea and then 5-1 by Liverpool - that defeat prompted one particular tabloid newspaper to crack the club crest on its back pages with the sub-deck headline 'Celts in Crisis! It was pre-season after all!
A 1-0 defeat by Roma followed before Philadelphia proved to be the happier hunting ground as Celtic finished off their tour with a 2-1 win over Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United.
However, Rodgers is well aware that Celtic’s most famous summer tour of the USA which helped shape Jock Stein's Lisbon Lions occurred in the summer of 1966. Celtic travelled to the USA, Canada and Bermuda where they played 11 games in total. Celtic won eight and drew three, scoring 47 goals and conceding only six in the process.
This trip was the catalyst for what came next in the historic and memorable 1966/67 season and the unprecedented success it yielded. The tour helped the players bond, ensuring they went on to win all five competitions they entered - the Scottish League, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, the Glasgow Cup and of course, the European Cup.
However, Rodgers joked that even he can't promise a similar experience for Celtic both at home and abroad in season 2024/25.
He said: "Aye, I am well aware of Jock Stein's Celtic's team tour of America and what happened after that. It was that tour of the USA which shaped the Lisbon Lions. No pressure then!
"That's okay. The expectations are always here at Celtic, but listen, it's just brilliant to embark on a tour like this."
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Perhaps the best sports writer of them all bar none, Hugh McIlvanney summed it up best as to the reason why Celtic are such a global footballing phenomenon today.
It was McIlvanney who famously said of Jock Stein and the Lisbon Lions after Celtic's stunning 2-1 triumph over Inter Milan in the 1967 European Cup final: "The greatest manager in the history of the game. You tell me a manager anywhere in the world who did something comparable, winning the European Cup with a Glasgow District XI.”
The Lisbon Lions remain the torchbearers and standard by which every other Celtic team are measured.
Rodgers and his men will 'Feel The Love' and appreciation of the exiled Celtic supporters on the current USA trip.
However, it is worth noting it was that same Glasgow District XI who put Celtic firmly on the worldwide football map. One could argue in that instant Celtic became 'The World's Local Football Team'.
The Celtic supporters worldwide are still taking that to the bank to this day.
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