Robertson’s park life a big hit with Souttar

Li k e m a n y o t h e r s stymied by disobliging scheduling, John Souttar spent Saturday evening squinting at a small mobile phone screen. A wedding that clashes with the Champions League final is bad enough.

W h e n i t ’s a C h a m p i o n s League final in which one of your best mates is playing an integral part, protocol gets flung out the window. Souttar probably did not have to apologise to the groom, fellow footballer Jack Hamilton. There’s a good chance the Dundee and former Hearts goalkeeper was trying to manoeuvre into position himself to catch a glimpse of the game amid the throng. “Jack didn’t have a s c r e e n u p a t his wedding so a few of us we r e c r owd i n g around,” recalled Souttar. “A few of the boys were there.”

One of “the boys” was not. He was pacing up and down the left flank of the Wanda Metro - politano stadium in the searing

heat. Andy Robertson was helping Liverpool win the European Cup against Spurs, becoming the first Scot since Paul Lambert with Borussia Dortmund in 1997 to feature in the winning side in the final.

It’s the kind of dream you might have playing kickabout in the back garden – or down at Dundee’s Riverside Drive pitches, which passed as the back garden for four young starlets at Dundee United sharing a flat in the city’s west end.

A photograph was doing the rounds again on Twitter yesterday and simply re-emphasised where talent combined with hard work and passion and a bit of good fortune can lead. Robertson is pictured crouching in team group style with three others – next to him in the front row is Souttar, while in the backrow Joe Mcgovern, the former United goalkeep er, is standing next to Ryan Gauld.

There’s not a stitch of United traini n g g e a r o n a ny o f t h e m. S o u t t a r i s wearing a Spain top, Gauld a Barcelona top – as befits someone dubbed the Mini-messi in his time at Tannadice – while Robertson seems to be wearing a Dungeons & Dragons themed T-shirt a l o n g w i t h g o a l i e g l o ve s . T h e r e’s a p o r t a b l e s e t o f g o a l s h e l p i n g f r a me the picture behind them. As a portrait o f f o o t b a l l e n t h u s i a s m , i t ’s a l m o s t infectious. And it’s not as if they were simply kids.

Robertson joined Dundee United in 2013 so that’s as far back as it can date. He is 25-years- old now which means when the photo was taken he must h a v e b e e n 1 8 , p o s s i b l y 1 9. H e h a d a l r e a dy s t a r te d h i s s e n i o r c a r e e r a t Queen’s Park. And yet there he is with his Dundee United mates, three of whom were close to be becoming regulars, if they were not already, playing football for the fun of it at Riverside Drive, where they were probably indistinguishable from the students who have kickabouts there.

“I think that sums up his attitude,”