Celtic came up against Real Madrid in the Champions League group stage earlier this season, in what were truly a couple of glamour games. Ultimately, the Hoops were not successful in getting the better of the 14-time winners of the competition, but they did impress everybody with their performance at Parkhead.
Celtic clearly have a number of quality players in their squad. They were back in the Champions League after a long time and the experience must have helped them a lot. If they are able to qualify for next season’s edition, one would think that they would get better results than they did this time around.
On the other hand, Matt O’Riley appears to believe that one Celtic player would not look out of place even if he was put in the Real Madrid team. And that is none other than Callum McGregor.
As reported by the Daily Record, O’Riley said about the Celtic captain:
"“If I’m being completely honest, I think Cal is at a similar level now (to those players). Respectfully, if he was put into a team like Real Madrid I think he’d fit in pretty easily. I have played with a lot of good players and Cal is definitely up there with the best of them. He’s a very important player and captain of the club. On top of that, he’s a genuinely nice guy as well.”"
O’Riley believes that Celtic player is good enough to play for Real Madrid
McGregor is without doubt one of the best players in Scotland right now, if not the very best. He is genuinely a class apart.
If McGregor wanted to, he probably could have very easily gotten a move to the Premier League. But the midfielder has showed loyalty to Celtic and stayed put at the club throughout the course of his career.
He has climbed through the ranks, going from ball boy to lifting the league title last season as captain. And it feels like there is still a long way left to go in his storied journey at Parkhead.
McGregor is 29 years of age and it is unlikely that he would leave Celtic Park at this stage of his career. He has been a wonderful player for the club for such a long time, and hopefully we will get to see him retire in the Hoops one day. Let’s just hope that that day is far away.