Andy Robertson: Liverpool left-back on cusp of Scottish football greatness in Champions League

Did you know, nine years ago Andy Robertson was turning out as an amateur at Queen’s Park, and this weekend he’ll walk out in his third Champions League final?

Of course you did. The rise of the Scotland captain from his Celtic release and Spiders spell to the top of the game is so widely told it’s become a trope for Liverpool’s success. It’s bound to be mentioned again during the TV and radio coverage when Jurgen Klopp’s side match up to Real Madrid in Paris for European football’s ultimate prize.

Yet, for all it’s cliched repetition, Robertson's rise is still very much worthy of mention.

It is also far from over yet.

Success in football has many standards; defying the odds, forging a career, personal accolades and achievements – but the measure of silverware is one particularly definitive marker.

A win over Real Madrid would take Liverpool to six European Cups and Champions Leagues – joint-second of the most successful sides in the competition behind their opponents’ record-setting 13. It would also place Scotland’s left-back in the upper band of decorated players of the country’s national game.

Scottish winners of the trophy are few and far between. Robertson is already one, but multiple winners are an esteemed bunch he is potentially one day away from joining.

Before him, only six Scottish footballers have played and won a European Cup final more than once, while another, John O’Hare, picked up his second medal as an unused substitute for Nottingham Forest.

Scots also ran through Nottingham Forest’s two-time tournament winners in that 1980s era when Kenny Burns, John McGovern and John Robertson picked up their two medals and there is an Anfield Scots legacy already. Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen all