Matt O‘Riley is on the cusp of receiving his first international cap for Denmark and former Celtic midfielder, Morten Wieghorst, has expressed his delight at the prospect.
Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi celebrates scoring their second goal with Matt O’Riley REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Wieghorst is now the assistant manager of the country and has been paying close attention to the Celtic midfielder’s progress this season.
Qualifying through his mother‘s side of the family, the 22–year–old had been in contention for a call-up to the Qatar World Cup squad, but unfortunately, it was not to be.
That hasn‘t deterred O‘Riley, however, and the international camp have taken note of the improvements in his game at Celtic of late.
After a hot and cold start to the season, O‘Riley had been forced to contend with the likes of Reo Hatate and Aaron Mooy for a place in the starting XI. But, he’s back on top form now, as he has started hitting the back of the net, a sight that wasn’t so common until a few matches ago.
Wieghorst praised the young midfielder, saying: [Footbal Scotland]
“Matt’s development looks really good. At the beginning of the year he maybe wasn’t starting as much for Celtic but that’s how it is with young players.
“There are periods when they just have to take a step back to take the next step forward. He just needs to keep doing what he is doing.
“The competition for the midfield (with Denmark) is great and he is up against English Premier League players too so we need to remember that.
“But he looks like he is going to win the title with Celtic and that’s really good for the players. Usually what happens is if you finish as a champion, you get to play international football too. So from our point of view it’s great.
“The Danish talent development is really healthy and you can clearly see from the youth teams that more exciting players are on the way.”
