'You base your life on this opportunity' - Celtic’s Auston Trusty won’t stop fighting for his USMNT World Cup chance

For several years, Trusty just wanted a chance. He'd always been on the fringes, always been someone close but not quite involved. He was often a member of the USMNT, but very rarely a player. It took years for that to change.

Entering November camp, Trusty had played a grand total of 111 international minutes. His first call-up came in 2019 and, in the years since, he'd been called in plenty of times, but actual chances to play were few and far between. It took a further four years after that initial call-up for him to even get his USMNT debut: a start against Grenada. It took nearly three more years for that type of opportunity to come his way again.

In the meantime, Trusty routinely pushed himself on the club level, desperate to prove his worth to whichever coach was watching back home. He went from MLS to Arsenal and then on loan to Birmingham City, where he won the club's Player of the Year award. He made the leap to the Premier League with Sheffield United and, when they went down, he challenged himself again by moving to a giant in Celtic. Surely one of these moves would click, he thought. Surely this was how he’d force his way into a real opportunity.

"I've been a part of this team, for the national team, since I was around 19," he says. "I've been in many camps, but I just didn't get this chance to play. I played Premier League, Champions League, won trophies, but you can only control what you can control. It's just performing for your club team with those performances and getting called in. You can't control everything, but you can put your best foot forward and, hopefully, get that chance."

That chance finally came. In November, Trusty started in the 5-1 win over Uruguay, earning an assist for good measure. Then, in March, he had a strong shift in the USMNT's 2-0 loss to Portugal. It was the type of performance that showed that Trusty can, in fact, compete at the highest of levels, and one that gave him a very real chance at being a part of the World Cup this summer.

"I have an itch to play and to be that person for this team," he says. "I know I can. I've done it in my career with my club team, and the national team really has always been my main focus. Everything, every single move I've ever made in my entire career has been based on the national team. Everything I've done has helped me to be that player, be that person, who can get the opportunity to play for the national team."

Many would feel the pressure that comes with that. With a World Cup so close and a spot on the roster not assured, most would feel the weight. Trusty says he doesn't, though, largely because he's used to it.

Trusty can pinpoint the exact moment he realized his life had changed, and that he would have to change to meet it.

It came on July 19, 2023. He had just played the final 10 minutes of Arsenal's 5-0 win over the MLS All-Stars. He'd leave for Sheffield United a few weeks later but, for that one night, he was a Gunner, which means he was being held to manager Mikel Arteta's high standards.

"I remember we won 5-0 and Arteta was so mad at us," he says. "He was so mad at the team. He thought guys weren't trying. That's when I knew the level was different. This was an MLS All-Star game, a preseason friendly. The fact that we won 5-0 and still had things that we were screamed at for in that game? Arteta said we weren't trying. It's a whole different mindset, and that was my first experience of, 'Whoa, this is a different culture'."

That sense has only heightened in the years since. After that one season in Sheffield, Trusty moved to Glasgow, putting himself under the biggest microscopes the game has on offer. For the uninitiated, a move from the Premier League to Scotland would be a step down. Not when you move to Celtic, though. The Bhoys and their rivals, Rangers, are different.

Glasgow is a battlefield, literally so in a recent clash between the two heated rivals, where fans from both teams clashed on the pitch after the match. Every game is life and death, and every decision is the most important one that is ever made. From the smallest moments to the biggest games, Celtic players are dissected. Trusty lives it every day.

"You can have an amazing game, but there's another game in two or three days and, when that game happens, it's now the most important thing," he says. "You have to always move on. You're going to have good games and bad games, highs and lows, and you need to stay in the middle but have belief in yourself. There's always another game. If the last one didn't go your way, you have another in three days, and everything else doesn't matter anymore.

"It's a bubble. When you're in the Glasgow area, it's a bubble, but Celtic is also a worldwide brand. I was in an Irish bar in Sorrento, Italy, and it was a Celtic bar. It's what you want."

It's what he wants, at least. It's what he's always wanted.

At the start of his career, Trusty bet on himself. He knew it then and embraces it now. At one point, that meant choosing between the University of North Carolina and turning pro.

“When I signed pro,” he says, “everyone called me stupid.”

It's wild to think about considering how much has changed. The Philadelphia Union academy has since produced fellow USMNT players in Mark McKenzie, Brenden Aaronson, Matt Freese, Jack McGlynn, and Paxten Aaronson. Quinn Sullivan and Nathan Harriel have been in the mix, too. Cavan Sullivan might just be next up. The Union have routinely been right there among American soccer's best at producing talent.

Trusty, though, was part of that initial class. He didn't realize it at the time, but being part of that was something of a risk. At the very least, it wasn't the cool thing to do.

"Growing up close to Philadelphia, I had to beg my friends to play soccer," he recalls. "If you weren't close to me, you probably didn't even know I played. When I signed pro, people didn't even know I played. People knew me as a basketball and baseball guy. I didn't tell them because soccer was never the topic, and people didn't really care. They just cared about basketball stories.

"There was no pathway. No academy stars had done it before. I was an example of how to do it. Then you have Mark, Brendan, [Anthony] Fontana, Matt Real, other guys, but when I first did it, I really was shooting blind."

The shooting worked, of course. It put Trusty on a path towards where he wanted to be. It didn't always look like it was going to happen, though. He was nearly cut from the Union's academy, only for one coach to save him at the last minute. Life could have ended up so different, and that fact isn't lost on him.

It's part of why he wants everything to work out so badly. It's about proving himself right, of course, and showing that bet he made all those years ago can pay off in the biggest way. It's also about showing people the value of backing yourself.

"I try to go back every single year and speak with them," he says. "I try to play football with them and let them see the intensity and mindset. I also want them to see me as a regular dude. I was just one of those guys."

Trusty has lived both sides of it, from the lowest points in the academy to the highest, and wants those players to understand that their path matters. Just as important, he wants to be someone they can connect with - someone who has been there before.

"I know what it's like to feel like my dream is in someone else's hands. Not everyone is going to believe in you, but I'm going to take that power and put it in my hands," Trusty says.

That belief now drives everything he does.

"I've locked down the best attackers in the world. I've scored goals, had big moments, lifted trophies. I thrive off opportunities. I thrive in big moments," he says.

The fact is, though, that there are new hands holding Trusty's ultimate dream. Those hands belong to USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino. All Trusty can do now is state his case.

It's often hard for Trusty to really grasp where he is. He's 27 now, turning 28 in July. He's spent nearly all of his adult life far from home. Throughout that time, he's been chasing, and that chase has made it somewhat hard to reflect.

"There are times when I still can't realize I have a kid. I can't realize I'm married. Then it's just the coolest thing ever when I put it all together," he says. "Sometimes you forget how much life has changed. This is my life now but, in my head, I still feel like I'm 19."

Trusty isn't 19, though. He's no longer a young player and no longer that kid kicking a ball at a bush in his backyard. He's a star defender in Europe, a father, a husband, and for these next few weeks, a World Cup hopeful. Maybe, in the end, he'll be a World Cup participant, too.

If that does happen, if it all does come together in the ways that he dreamed of in his childhood bedroom, it will mean something. It'll mean something to the kid that still lives inside. It'll mean something to the adult, too. More than anything, though, Trusty wants to make sure that all of this might mean something to everyone else.

"We really are trying to change the game and change the viewpoints of soccer in America," he says.

He sees it everywhere now - Lionel Messi jerseys across Miami, kids like his nephew and nieces knowing exactly who he is. To him, it’s proof that the culture is shifting.

"That's why I want to play in this World Cup because, hopefully, the team does what I believe it can do, and that's where the culture shifts. The better we do, the more accepting people will be, and the better it will be for Americans in Europe or other places. The world will accept us as players.

"Every decision I've made has been about this opportunity right here. You base your entire life on this opportunity...That's why I'm working my ass off to get there."

Will the work be worth it? In many ways, it already is. But, if he does make it to the World Cup, if he does take the field in the biggest games soccer has to offer, it won't be anything unfamiliar; it'll be something he's lived thousands of times in hopes of someday doing it for real.