Ryan Christie’s dad laid it on the line over Highers

It is probably just as well Ryan Christie’s mature adherence to parental guidance didn’t extend to an unquestioning acceptance of secondary school careers’ advice.

Just four years ago, the newly-crowned Thistle Hotel Scottish Football Writers’ Young Player of the Year sat in front of a careers’ officer at Millburn Academy, Inverness, and told them he wanted to kick a ball for a living.

Christie would hardly have drawn less credulity from his interrogator had he suggested lion-taming, brain surgery or deep-space exploration!

Luckily for him, his father Charlie who had graced the north game for more than two decades recognised the talent in the toes that has lately attracted a steady traffic of top-level English scouts to the Highlands.

Still, for young Ryan, there was a sage warning: get your Highers or you won’t be signing professional terms with Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

“I remember when I was at school, you got a class where they asked you what you wanted to do in the future,” the 20-year-old recalled. “I always used to say: ‘Become a footballer’. But the teacher never took me on.

“The answer was always: ‘Yes, yes, but realistically, what do you want to do?’

“And I would still say I wanted to be a footballer because that’s all I have ever wanted to do. Getting my grades at school was something I knew was important, but doing what I do now was always my plan.

“When I was coming through the youth ranks here at Caley Thistle, my dad told me that if I didn’t get good exam results then I’d be back to school for sixth year.

“I struggled with Maths and English, to be honest, so had to get extra tutors for that and scraped through. I got five Highers in the end and have picked up another since.”

Last season’s first-team breakthrough came with a December debut under Terry Butcher and then progress under John Hughes, with Christie sparingly introduced to the rigours of top-flight football.

The impact this season has been unmistakeable. Christie is a natural talent who glides through matches, with subtle touches, clever and stealthy movement and telling passes and finishes. He is also advancing physically with every passing month.

The Inverness-born attacker, who still lives with his parents, has now won three Under-21 international caps and can be bracketed comfortably alongside the likes of Sporting Lisbon’s Ryan Gauld as one with bright potential to reach the highest level.

Would Christie Senior, then, really have thwarted his big chance to take that vital first step at his hometown club?

“I really think he would have followed through with not letting me sign if I had failed those Highers,” Christie said. “He still jokes sometimes that he wished I’d gone to university rather than become a footballer.

“Even when I did sign here, I was still going to school one day a week to get another Higher. He wanted to make sure I got my grades and I realise it was for my own benefit.

“My dad coached me from a young age and throughout the youths, yet I didn’t really think of the bigger picture. I didn’t see he was helping me. I used to think ‘this guy is always on my back’ and look for a bit of sympathy.

“My mum is very supportive, too, and when I have a bad game, I tend to head through to the kitchen with her, rather than the living-room with my dad!”