Ryan Christie

Ryan Christie (born 22 February 1995) is a Scottish footballer, who plays for Celtic. He began his career with Inverness Caledonian Thistle before joining Celtic in 2015, and had two spells on loan at Aberdeen. He has also represented the Scotland under-21 and full national teams.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Christie was born in Inverness in 1995; he is the son of footballer Charlie Christie, who was playing for Caledonian Thistle at the time and who had previously been a reserve player with Celtic.

Christie joined the Inverness Caledonian Thistle youth system aged 10, before eventually signing his first professional contract in 2011. He signed a new deal with the club under Terry Butcher, and was among several youngsters to be promoted to the club's first team.

Christie made his debut in the Scottish Premiership against Celtic on 29 December 2013. He came on as a substitute in the 100th minute in the Scottish League Cup Final against Aberdeen, a game that Inverness lost on penalties. Despite this, Christie helped the club finish in the top-six of the Scottish Premiership. His first goal for Inverness came in a 2–1 loss against Motherwell on 1 April 2014. Christie added two more goals later in the season against Dundee United and St Johnstone. After impressive displays for Inverness, Christie signed a new contract with the club at the end of the 2013–14 season.

Christie scored his first goal of the 2014–15 season in a 2–0 win over Hamilton Academical. Christie's performances against Dundee, Motherwell, Celtic, Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle saw him win the SPFL Young Player of the Month for August. During a match against St Mirren in October 2014, he was sent-off for the first time in his career – being dismissed by referee Willie Collum for two-bookable offences. Christie added to his earlier success by winning the SPFL Young Player of the Month award for February 2015, and his eye-catching form over the whole season subsequently saw him shortlisted for the Young Player of the Year award. Although he didn't win that accolade, he was later honoured with the SFWA Young Player of the Year award. Christie started the 2015 Scottish Cup Final and was later substituted for James Vincent, who scored the winning goal in a 2–1 victory over Falkirk. After the match, Christie described winning the Scottish Cup as "unbelievable, hard to put into words".

Celtic

2015–16

On 1 September 2015, Christie joined Celtic on a four-year deal. After signing for the Scottish champions, Christie was immediately sent back to Inverness on a season-long loan deal. He sustained a knee injury against Motherwell in November, and was recalled by Celtic so he could work with their medical staff at their Lennoxtown training complex. In December 2015, Celtic announced they would be recalling Christie from his loan spell at Inverness.

Christie made his debut for Celtic on 23 January 2016 in their 3–1 win over St Johnstone, coming on as an 88th-minute substitute for Stuart Armstrong.

Aberdeen loans

On 24 January 2017, Christie joined Aberdeen on loan until the end of the 2016–17 season. He scored his first goal for Aberdeen on 4 February 2017, in a 2–0 win against Partick Thistle. He helped Aberdeen finish second in the 2016–17 Scottish Premiership and progress to the 2017 Scottish Cup Final, but was unable to take part in the cup final because it was against his parent club Celtic.

Christie returned to Aberdeen on loan for most of the 2017–18 season, moving in June 2017 as part of a deal for Jonny Hayes.

2018–19

Christie returned to Celtic for the 2018–19 season. Neil Lennon, who returned to Celtic as manager later in the season, said in July 2019 that he had wanted to sign Christie for Hibernian during the summer of 2018 as part of a proposed deal for John McGinn. In the 2018–19 League Cup semi-final against Hearts at Murrayfield, Christie won a penalty, caused a goalkeeping error and hit a "wonderful left-foot shot" leading to each goal in the eventual 3–0 victory. Christie signed a new contract with Celtic in November 2018. On 2 December, he scored the only goal of the 2018 Scottish League Cup Final at Hampden against former club Aberdeen. His season ended abruptly on 14 April 2019 in the Scottish Cup semi-final, again at Hampden against Aberdeen, when he suffered facial fractures in an aerial collision with opponent Dominic Ball, who was sent off for the reckless nature of the challenge.

2019–20

Christie scored a hat-trick in a 7–0 win against St Johnstone in the first game of the 2019–20 Scottish Premiership season.

On 25 August 2014, Christie was called up by Scotland U21. After being left on the bench against Slovakia U21, Christie finally made his Scotland U21 debut against Luxembourg U21 on 9 September 2014, coming on as a substitute for Lewis Macleod in the second half, which Scotland U21 won 3–0.

Christie received his first call-up to the senior Scotland squad for a friendly against the Netherlands in November 2017, and played the full 90 minutes of the 1–0 defeat. Christie was called up on 14 May 2018, for the friendlies against Mexico and Peru.

Club

As of 7 March 2020

International appearances

As of 18:34, 16 November 2019 (UTC)

International goals

As of match played 16 November 2019. Scotland score listed first, score column indicates score after each Christie goal.

No.	Date	Venue	Cap	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	16 November 2019	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	10	Cyprus	1–0	2–1	UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

Club

Inverness Caledonian Thistle

• Scottish Cup: 2014–15

Celtic

• Scottish Premiership (2): 2018–19, 2019–20
• Scottish League Cup (2): 2018–19, 2019–20

Individual

• SPFL Young Player of the Month: August 2014, February 2015
• SFWA Young Player of the Year: 2014–15