Welcome back to "Footballers That Time Forgot”, where we take a look at former professional footballers who once enjoyed a stretch of time in the spotlight, but have since faded out of the public eye and continued on with their lives.
The former pros we will be featuring are on the more obscure side, the type of player you had endless duplicates of in your Premier League stickers swaps pile, but all of them made a name for themselves at a high level, and most of them now have quite an interesting occupation.
This week, we're looking at the career of Derby County wonderkid Malcolm Christie.
Christie burst onto the Premier League scene with Derby.
18 year old Malcolm Christie was playing non-league football at Nuneaton Borough and stacking supermarket shelves part time when he was discovered by Jim Smith, then manager of Derby County, having bagged 12 goals in 19 games for Nuneaton. He signed his first professional contract with Derby, and by the age of 20 he was a regular in the Premier League.
In his first season with the Rams, Malcolm Christie was their top scorer with 12 Premier League goals. Suddenly he found himself in the spotlight, and during his second season with Derby he earned his first of eleven call ups to the England U21s. With the ups, however, there were a few downs...
Niggling injuries halted his progress and Derby suffered badly in his absence, eventually being relegated to Division 1. Christie stayed for a season but eventually moved away when Middlesbrough came calling.
Making the move to Middlesbrough.
Malcolm Christie was back in the Premier League after Middlesbrough paid a combined £3m for him and Chris Riggott.
His time at the Riverside was plagued by injuries, and after four years at Boro, Christie had played just 47 times, scoring 7 goals, and none of them very memorable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_6o2wG5ku0
He did have a brief run in the team under Gareth Southgate in 2006, and even scored on his come back from injury in a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa, but at the end of the season he found him self out of contract and looking for a club.
The end of his playing days.
As a free agent, Malcolm Christie began a trial at Leeds United in an attempt to prove his fitness. Gary McAllister was then manager, and he eventually offered the striker a short term deal.
Sadly, injuries would again scupper Christie's chances of success, this time a spinal injury picked up in training would lead to his retirement in January 2009. He played just four time for Leeds, scoring one goal.
Life after football.
Malcolm Christie initially enjoyed the life of a stay at home father with his two young sons, but after two years out of the game he decided he needed to occupy himself and wished to get involved with the other passion in his life, cars. After writing to a number of local dealerships, Malcolm Christie was eventually taken on as a salesman for Aston Martin with auto retailer Stratstone.
At the time of writing, Christie is still employed as an Aston Martin salesman and by all accounts loves his job. Fair play to him.
