The World Cup is underway in Qatar and we are soon going to see a new world champion being crowned in football. Several Celtic players had their dreams of making the tournament shattered recently when the squads for Qatar were finalised. One of them, Matt O’Riley, has revealed his disappointment and future hopes for national team appearances.
O’Riley has made astonishing progress since his move from English League One side, MK Dons, to Celtic in January. From playing his football in the third division all the way through to winning the Premiership title and playing Champions League football.
That’s some journey. It also included O’Riley getting into the Denmark Under 21 team and harbouring hopes of a late call up to the full Danish squad for the World Cup. Ultimately, it did not materialise though.
It looks like he was far away from making the squad either. As reported by The Scottish Sun, O’Riley said about the matter:
"“I was really disappointed.“I spoke with the manager and I think I was close.“I think it was just a tiny bit soon for me by the sound of it.“He was saying that the lead up to this World Cup was quite a strange one.“There weren’t a lot of training sessions before, so to integrate me would have been a bit difficult, so I kind of understood.“Hopefully there’s going to be more opportunities for me next year.“If I keep my form and keep improving, hopefully I’ll be involved.”"
Of course, he was not the only one to miss out on a spot at the World Cup. O’Riley felt for the others who had their hopes crushed as well:
"“I felt for both Reo and Kyogo.“Selfishly, it’s probably a good thing for us. They’re going to come back fresh for the league, they’re not going to get injured or anything.“We were a bit confused that they didn’t make it.“I think a few boys were unlucky.“Even Jota, I think he had a fair shout of going with Portugal.“It’s a good thing we were all close.“It shows we’re in a good position and hopefully next year we can all be involved with our national teams.”"
Celtic players looking to bounce back from World Cup disappointment
Most people had expected Kyogo to be in the Japan squad while Hatate was believed to be touch-and-go as well. Surprisingly, both were left out despite being involved in the squads leading up to the tournament.
Jota had been named in the initial 56-player Portugal squad, but like O’Riley it was a step too far at this stage for him to make the final squad of one of the strongest national teams in the world right now.
At the end of the day, all these players have taken positive steps at Celtic though. When they arrived nobody could have even imagined that O’Riley and Jota would have a shout at making the World Cup squad while Kyogo and Hatate were unlucky to miss out.