Roberto De Zerbi raves about Matt O’Riley’s Celtic spell and reveals ex-Premier League man he gets along with

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Matt O’Riley is living the dream at Marseille.

The midfielder enjoyed a stellar final season at Celtic under Brendan Rodgers in which he was named the club’s Player of the Year.

This earned him a £30 million move to the Premier League with Brighton, and after a first season hampered by injuries at the Seagulls, his second season was highly anticipated.

So his sudden deadline move to France came as a surprise. However, given the opportunity to play in the Champions League and compete against European champions PSG for the Ligue 1 title, he will not be taking the move for granted.

His Marseille boss, who also moved to France from Brighton, has been discussing all things O’Riley.

Roberto De Zerbi full of praise for Matt O’Riley

L’OM defeated PSG 1-0 on Monday night in a stunning result at the Velodrome, and the 24-year-old midfielder played all 90 minutes.

Speaking ahead of their meeting with Strasbourg on Friday, De Zerbi had nothing but kind words for the Denmark international.

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He said: “He played very well at Celtic and Brighton. He was courted in other leagues and by Champions League teams. He’s a strong, serious player, he understands football.

“He had a good game against Madrid because he was always with his back to goal. The more we progressed, the more we felt him on the pitch.

“He’s the player who runs the most on our team. He’s Danish and he gets along with Hojbjerg. He does simple things in the right way.”

O’Riley isn’t the only former Celtic man on their books – Timothy Weah, who spent the second half of the 2018-19 season on loan in Glasgow, followed in his father’s footsteps by joining Marseille this summer.

How are Celtic’s other big recent sales doing this season?

Nicolas Kuhn is yet to register a goal or assist since moving to Serie A to join Como. His side are sitting eighth so far this season.

Kyogo Furuhashi is yet to register a league goal for Championship side Birmingham, where he moved from Rennes this summer.

Since moving from Glasgow to PAOK, Greg Taylor has largely been a substitute for the Greek side. Their Europa League campaign kicked off with a goalless draw with Maccabi Tel-Aviv on Wednesday night.

And Gustaf Lagerbielke could well make his Celtic Park return next week – he played the full 90 as Braga beat Feyenoord 1-0 in their opener in the same competition.