The extraordinary story of Matt O’Riley’s circuitous route to the top – which may be about to enter a whole new chapter this summer after helping Celtic to their third successive title – is worth holding up as an inspiration for anyone trying to achieve his or her success. away in the cutthroat world of football.
As a teenager at Fulham he had big clubs from all over Europe watching him and he could easily have signed the new three-year contract presented to him at the age of 19, when his previous contract expired. He didn’t. He walked away because he didn’t see a path to the first team.
O’Riley spent 2020’s lockdown without a club, training alone or with his father in parks around west London. He took up an offer to train with MK Dons and rode the 140-mile round trip every day from his family home in Thames Ditton.
He saw a potential move to Belgian side KV Kortrijk fall through after a trial period before agreeing terms in Milton Keynes and trying his luck in English League One. And now, just over three years later, here he is.
Since joining Celtic midway through Ange Postecoglou’s first season in charge for £1.5million, O’Riley has made rapid progress under Australian and currently Brendan Rodgers.
Now 23, he is one of the top players at Parkhead. He won the league title in each of his three seasons (the latest of which came at Rugby Park this week) and was the subject of a £20m bid from Atletico Madrid at the turn of the year.
Matt O’Riley warms up ahead of the crucial match against Kilmarnock on Wednesday evening
Midfielder O’Riley has emerged as Celtic’s big asset in recent seasons
Cheering O’Riley celebrates the title victory with teammate Joe Hart
His personal development is sure to attract renewed interest in the coming months and has ticked many boxes when it comes to motivating players who struggle to break through at top clubs, where youth are not always given the opportunity.
Believe in yourself. Make your dreams come true. Don’t make money your god. Take a step back if you need to. Buy games.
With O’Riley you sense that there is a lot more going on beneath the surface. Deeper things that may apply beyond the isolated worlds of professional sports. For all of us, regardless of our age or stage of life.
They are focused on marching to your own beat, on pursuing the things you love and finding ways to continue to find fulfillment in them during difficult times, on overcoming disappointments, on tackling what is holding you back, on helping others and remaining open to being helped. yourself. And perhaps most importantly, especially in the case of younger men, talking to the right people when it all gets a bit overwhelming.
In explaining the reasons for the increased consistency in his playing, O’Riley has spoken of the meditation he indulges in and the regular Zoom calls he makes with a friend and life coach in India.
‘Dish’ worked as a trainee at Fulham during O’Riley’s time at Craven Cottage. “I immediately built a relationship with him because I felt he really wanted to help me,” O’Riley has said. “I didn’t necessarily get that feeling from everyone else there.”
O’Riley scored twice against Kilmarnock in a 5–0 win at Rugby Park
O’Riley is congratulated by Greg Taylor after his double against Kilmarnock
Denmark international O’Riley does a stretching exercise before the match against Kilmarnock
It was fascinating to hear what his friend actually spoke to him about.
“I work with him a lot when it comes to discussing things that may have been hidden in me for a long time,” said the midfielder. ‘(Things) I may not have had the courage to talk about them, but I did have the knowledge to understand how to talk about them. That helped me a lot and it helped me be a more well-rounded person overall.”
Football is a tough environment. Things are getting better, but young people in this industry still believe that conforming to stereotypes is an easier choice. Individualism is not always encouraged.
With the pressure and expectations out there, it can be a difficult testing ground. That O’Riley is confident enough to admit to taking such new-age approaches is to be applauded. The fact that he has been insightful enough to tackle the obstacles that keep him from getting where he wants to go is amazing.
Confronting inner demons is challenging and complicated. O’Riley himself admits that it took a few years of hard, hard work to get into this headspace, this state of mind that has brought him to the brink of launch. Something about him also tells you that he will likely remain a work in progress.
Nearly everyone who speaks of O’Riley mentions his deep, unending love for football. He spoke not long ago about his desire to maintain the “young, childlike playfulness” he had on the field as a 14-year-old, where he could express himself freely and appreciate football for what it is and should be.
He admits that not all of this comes from within. It involves accepting help and advice from others when things are a little difficult.
He talks about how the support others have given him in the past now means he makes it a point to offer encouragement and support to colleagues and teammates.
Without Russell Martin, the former Rangers player, O’Riley might not be where he is today, playing international football for Denmark and preparing to enter the arena of the true, bona fide elite.
Martin, then manager of MK Dons, received a call from an agent in 2020 to let him know that O’Riley – watched as a boy by Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and all kinds – was looking was going to a place to train. The invitation he made led to a contract and a real change in the way O’Riley approached the game.
“They were always very nice to me from day one,” O’Riley said in an interview with The Athletic at the time. ‘Just a lot of praise, I wasn’t really used to that. It was nice to feel wanted.
‘I’ve never really had a relationship with a manager who regularly talked to me about how they thought about me and told me what I could and couldn’t do.’
O’Riley is an advertisement for self-help, but it serves as proof of what can happen when people are willing to reach out to others, accept kindness into their own lives, and talk about their fears and insecurities with those they trust. rationalize it and transform it into an action plan.
O’Riley has been on his own path to the top, from Fulham to Celtic and possibly beyond
It undoubtedly served him well when his form dipped midway through the season, at a time when Atlético’s interest was mounting but was ultimately rejected.
O’Riley worked his way back to become one of Celtic’s most influential performers and their most prized asset.
Having since admitted that he would be better equipped to deal with transfer speculation in the future, he honestly deserves whatever is coming his way.
*A version of this story first appeared in the Mail on Sunday in January