MATT O’RILEY’s journey over the past couple of years has taken him from training in the park with his dad to keep fit when he was without a club to the brink of making it onto Denmark’s plane headed for the Qatar World Cup. At least, that is what the Celtic midfielder hopes.
O’Riley scored for the Danish under-21 side in their European Championship qualifying match against Croatia during the week, though they would eventually lose out on penalty kicks.
His disappointment was tempered by a glowing appraisal from manager Jesper Sorensen for his work during the international break, and the 21-year-old now has his fingers crossed that he can impress sufficiently while playing for Celtic over the next few weeks to catch the eye of senior manager Kasper Hjelmund.
“It was nice to score,” O’Riley said.
“It was quite a long trip so I’m happy to be back at Celtic. It was enjoyable but unfortunately we didn’t qualify in the end as a result of penalties. That was a bit frustrating but other than that it was a decent trip.
“I felt I performed pretty well overall, especially the second game which was my kind of performance in terms of how I affected the game, on the ball especially.
“Hopefully I can bring that into our game on Saturday. I don’t think I did my chances of making the A squad for Qatar any harm.
“I always try to affect games and hopefully I can keep doing that here. I’m sure it helped somewhat but at the same time I can’t really think about it too much otherwise it’s going to distract me from what I need to do.
“I spoke with the 21s manager just before I left and he basically said keep going and keep pushing because obviously I’m pretty close in terms of making the squad. I haven’t made it but I’ve got a chance.
“I’ve just got to keep doing well at Celtic and see what happens really. I think there’s a chance. I’m at a big club and we’re playing in the Champions League so you’d think that if I continue to do well there will be a chance.
“We’ll see. I’m not 100 per cent sure. Whatever happens, I’ll still be a fan if I’m not there.
“It obviously feels a bit closer than it was a year ago, let’s say. A lot of things have happened. That’s just football. A lot of things can happen in a short space of time.
“Of course, you need a little bit of luck on the way, but at the same time I think you make your own luck through the work you put in.
“I’m obviously grateful to be in the position I’m in. Let’s see what happens.”
O’Riley may well be attracting interest from suitors in the English Premier League and winning fulsome praise from his Danish coaches, but Ange Postecoglou doesn’t think there is any danger of his player getting carried away by the attention that is now on him.
The Celtic manager has been impressed by O’Riley’s maturity since arriving in Glasgow, and he has urged him to maintain his focus on performing at club level, without which his international dreams and any interest from elsewhere will cease to exist.
“I think with these things perspective is always a good thing,” Postecoglou said.
“You could say Matt has had a meteoric rise, but this time last year he was playing with MK Dons in League One, so I think he understands the other side of football.
“He was literally training in the park with his dad and a personal trainer not all that long ago, so he understands how football works because he’s seen that side of it.
“When things are going well you sort of always understand that the only reason things are going well is because you are doing certain things, you are staying in the present, you are working hard and making sure you are the best footballer you can be.
“You can’t worry too much about speculation or what the next step is, the time when footballers maybe fall into the trap is when everything has gone well for them in their career and there are no setbacks.
“Even the best players in the world, they have always had setbacks, and Matty has had that.
“I think it’s been fantastic for his development as a person as well as a footballer to understand that as well as things are going now, they will only keep going well if he keeps doing what he is doing.”
