Charlie Christie

Charlie Christie (born 30 March 1966) is a Scottish former professional football player and coach who played as a striker and latterly as a midfielder. He played for Inverness Caledonian Thistle throughout the club's first ten years of existence (1994–2004) which saw three promotions from the old Third Division, to the Scottish Premier League, making over 250 appearances, later managed the club from January 2006 until August 2007 and one game in September 2023 as interim manager after Billy Dodds was sacked. He also played in the Scottish Highland Football League for Caledonian and Inverness Thistle before those clubs merged to become Caledonian Thistle, and was a reserve player at Celtic.

Charlie is the father of Ryan, who also played for Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and plays for Bournemouth and Scotland.

Playing career

Born in Inverness in 1966, Christie began his professional football career in 1983, playing for Caledonian in the Scottish Highland Football League. In 1985 he was transferred to local rivals Inverness Thistle. In September 1987 he signed for Celtic, where he made 56 appearances and scored 25 goals for the reserve team. He was unable to break into the Celtic first team, partly due to the performances of Frank McAvennie, who played in the same striker position. Christie rejoined Caledonian in 1989, in the combined role of player and commercial manager.

In 1994, when Inverness Thistle and Caledonian merged to form Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Christie joined the new club, where he combined his playing role with running the Centenary Club lottery. Initially he played as a striker, before eventually moving back to a midfield role. He was the only player to play for Caley Thistle during all of the club's first ten seasons and played in many of the club's most memorable games during this period, including the 3-1 Scottish Cup