Wedding planner Ryan Christie has clearly spotted my eyebrows arching skywards as he tells me he’s looking at a date in June for the big day. 

Euro 2024 kicks off in the middle of the month, with Scotland bang on target to be there, and the build-up will begin long before that.

The 39-times-capped midfielder hurriedly points out he’s talking about tying the knot with fiancee Georgie Bell in the summer of 2025. 

“Definitely not June 2024?” I ask him. Christie smiles as he confirms: “I’m hoping to be in Germany at that point. Fingers crossed for that.”

It could be a momentous month for him. Next year and the one after. And June 2023 was a bit special too with the arrival of Ryan and Georgie’s first child.

“Little Leo is all good," he says. "He’s eight weeks old and he’s amazing. He’s changed our world, to be honest, much for the better. With me playing lots of Saturdays, there’s a rule that Friday nights I’m sleeping undisturbed in the spare room.

"I’ve been granted that pass but Monday through Thursday it’s baby duty for me as well. I’m the nappy man so I’ve been changing nappies at three in the morning. That’s my job. He’s been sleeping really good, though. Me and my missus keep saying, when we have our second, that could be the devil child because Leo’s been so good so far

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"The due date was the 24th of June, Scotland beat Georgia at Hampden on the 20th and then he was born on the 25th so we timed it perfectly."

By the time Leo Christie is a year old, his dad hopes to have made his second appearance at a European Championship Finals. Qualifying the last time, nearly three years ago now, was something special as Scotland ended a 23-year wait to return to major tournament football. 

Christie's goal in that play-off final in Belgrade was cancelled out by a Serbian equaliser in the 90th minute and the penalty shootout victory which followed for Stevie Clarke’s team is the stuff of Scottish football legend.    

"Honestly it was my favourite night in football, by a mile,” he continues. “The way the game went, with the penalties, was mental. That, in itself, was insane. Before the game, you knew that everyone back home was badly affected by Covid and lockdown and it was a bit of a nightmare.

“Then afterwards, seeing videos of your loved ones and lots of other people back home having the time of their lives. It was amazing and something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

The David Marshall shootout save which sparked riotous celebrations will always be an abiding memory of that famous night but so will Christie’s tearful after-match TV interview as he spoke, through gasps of emotion, about a timely boost to a nation’s flagging spirits.  

“I was literally straight off the pitch," he says. "Normally when you do press stuff, as you know, you go back to the dressing room, have a shower and your whole emotional level has dropped by the time you’re talking to the media. I’d been told I was getting drug tested after the game so once you leave the pitch you have to go to the UEFA testing room and you can’t go anywhere else in between. So I thought, sod this.

"I’m not leaving the pitch yet and that’s when Luke (Sky Sports reporter Shanley) grabbed me for the interview. It was so raw and then, of course, Luke’s crying while he’s interviewing me so that’s setting me off as well.

"The feedback I got once I was home was amazing. My girlfriend still can’t watch it even now without crying. It’s just cool. It’s something that happened pretty naturally.”

Qualification was a massive achievement after so many failed attempts but, when the Finals came around, there was a feeling of anti-climax about Scotland’s performances in the two group games played at Hampden against the Czech Republic and Croatia. 

“We were happy with how we performed against England at Wembley but we were a bit frustrated with the other two games," says Christie. "We felt we had more potential than that. We didn’t want that to be our last competition for that generation of players. Obviously we had the World Cup heartbreak of losing the play-off to Ukraine but then it felt as if a switch was flicked after that and we had to make it to the next Euros.

"I think you’ve seen that so far in this qualifying campaign. It’s been a great start and we need to keep going. If we have three more good camps between now and the end of the year we’ll be in a good place.”

Scotland have come a long way since Christie made his Scotland debut six years ago. A strong squad keeps on improving and there’s a genuine excitement among the players about getting together for a training camp.

“It’s the polar opposite of when I started with Scotland," he says. "It was always different names getting called up, it was managers in and out and there was no real togetherness. Now everybody's absolutely buzzing to meet up, to see everyone again, get some training in and play together. And when you’re winning games and going on good runs it just keeps that momentum building.”

“It was Malky Mackay (then Scottish FA performance director) who gave me my first cap. He was stepping in for one game (after Gordon Strachan left the job), a friendly against the Netherlands and then it was Alex McLeish who was announced after him. When I first started playing for Scotland I remember European qualifiers against the likes of San Marino and Kazakhstan and there was barely 20,000 inside Hampden. They couldn’t even give the tickets away.

“So when you look at the way it is now, just a few years on, the place is selling out within a day. It’s a nice feeling. And it feels like that breeds more success. Everybody pulling together and having that feeling of the whole country behind you. You just want to be more successful to pay everyone back.

“I count myself lucky that I’ve somehow managed to luck myself into this group of boys while this is going on. It’s an amazing thing to play for your country when the atmosphere is so positive.”

Manager Clarke has created something special. No mean achievement when time with the players is limited. Christie has nothing but praise for the job he’s done. 

“I love the way he plays," he adds. "Obviously everybody does because it’s so successful. His training’s amazing.

"And I like his values. I mean, he’s strict, he has his rules, but on the other side of it, he doesn’t treat us like children when we’re away for ten days at a time. There’s a feeling of calm and you set your own rules and standards. I can’t speak highly enough about him.

“The nice thing is he leaves a lot of stuff to us, especially the senior boys like Andy (Robertson) and John McGinn. He knows that if there’s something wrong we’ll sort it ourselves. We’re treated like adults. It’s the perfect mix of a relaxed feel but when the game comes along there’s work to be done. He’s level-headed and that’s passed on to us, the players.”

And, while we might be getting carried away with five straight wins in this latest round of Euro qualifiers, and thinking it’s going to be difficult not to make it to Germany, there’s no danger of Clarke and his squad losing the plot. 

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Christie shakes his head: “I think that’s the slippery slope for us as players. We need to be careful and not fall into that trap as well just because we’ve had the perfect start. If you’d offered us five wins to start the group, we’d obviously have bitten your hand off. But I think we definitely know the harder games are still to come. We still need to get some big results.

“I think the nice feeling is that, when we play at Hampden these days, there’s such a belief and the whole country comes together for these nights. It just pushes us on massively. I think you saw that against Spain, even against Georgia in the pouring rain and those delays, everybody stayed to watch and support the team. It does feel like a real collective right now.”