Christie pursues more dreams on same stage as idol Messi

Relaxing with his team-mates in their hotel in uptown Charlotte, Ryan Christie watched the Lionel Messi show on Tuesday evening. Agog, like the rest of us. An international footballer, yes, but in those moments of magic from the great man, just another mortal.

"When you chill out a bit, you turn back into a spectator," said the Bournemouth and Scotland midfielder.

"Watching Messi [scoring a hat-trick against Algeria] and stuff like that, it's incredible to watch that happen. It's immense and pretty surreal, to be honest.

"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."

Tuesday was moving day in America, to an extent. A treble for Messi and doubles for Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland - the big boys came out to play. The tournament seemed to find another gear in the process.

For Christie, there was never any thought in his young head that he would ever make it to a stage like this. "Non-existent," he said. "I don't know if it sounds bad to say that.

"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.

"I didn't watch Scotland in a major tournament, so in my head that just wasn't really a possibility at that point - and probably why, all those years down the line, when we had that night in Serbia [qualifying for the first Euros under Steve Clarke] it hit home so much."