Ryan Christie is in line to add to his 69 Scotland caps against Morocco on Friday in Boston. The 31-year-old watched Lionel Messi on Tuesday evening and called it surreal to be on the same stage he once thought was out of reach.
Messi in Charlotte
“When you chill out a bit, you turn back into a spectator,” Christie said after watching Messi in the hotel in uptown Charlotte with his team-mates. He added: “When I was younger, I idolised Messi, so to think you're playing on the same kind of stage as him now is pretty cool, especially the age he's at. Watching him do his thing was unbelievable.”
That came after a night that also featured standout performances from Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. Christie did not speak about those two in the same way, but his reaction to Messi showed how far the World Cup stage sits from where he once imagined his career would stop.
Scotland in Boston
Christie said his early thoughts were “Non-existent,” when asked about reaching a World Cup stage. He also said: “I had aspirations of playing for Scotland when I was growing up - that was my pinnacle - but you didn't ever think further than that. I never, ever envisioned playing at a Euros, never mind the World Cup.”
He became emotional after Scotland's qualifying victory in Serbia for the first Euros under Steve Clarke, saying: “[The tears] were because it felt so out of reach for me and a few of the other boys,” and adding that the night made the moment hit home. Scotland now go into Morocco as underdogs, even though Christie said they have gone toe-to-toe with teams as good as Morocco in recent years.
Ryan Christie and Scotland
Christie already made a cameo appearance off the bench against Haiti, leaving open the practical question of whether he will start against Morocco or be used again as a substitute. Either way, the chance to move from 69 caps to 70 sits on Friday at 2300 BST, with another World Cup appearance carrying the weight of how far Scotland have come since that night in Serbia.
