Matt wouldn’t be surprised if his super-fan granny tried to sneak herself into Ibrox!
Matt O’riley’s Denmark call-up means he will be getting a visit from his superfan granny.
The Celtic midfielder is set to play for the Danes’ Under-21 side in a Euro qualifier against Belgium on March 29.
After that game in Herning, he’s returning to Scotland with a new red shirt – and a special visitor.
The 21-year-old was born in London, but qualifies for Denmark through his mother’s side of the family.
He said: “My cousins and grandma particularly are huge football fans. She is going to fly back with me, and will stay in my Glasgow apartment for a little while.
“She wants to see me play for Celtic and see the stadium and the city, which is great.
“She has been watching every Celtic game since I signed, sitting in her little apartment just outside Copenhagen, making sure that she gets online to see the matches.
“I wouldn’t put it past her to try to sneak into Ibrox for the game against Rangers, either!
“She is definitely wanting a ticket for Hampden too. She’s a super-fan!”
Playing for a nation outside the land of his birth shouldn’t be difficult when it comes to communicating for O’riley.
He said: “I am pretty fluent in Danish. I can certainly understand everything.
“But occasionally I find it difficult to think of what exactly I want to say, so I might need a little bit of practice when I first get over there.
“I know a few of the guys, and I am actually very good mates with someone who played against us for Bodo/glimt, Japhet Sery.
“That will help, but I am quite confident of being able to settle into the team quickly, just as I did here at Celtic.
“My mum was delighted that I was picked. I am on social media with the Danish side of my family, and they were obviously buzzing with the news. They haven’t watched someone in the family play for Denmark, so they think it is so cool.
“I’m excited on the football side, but also to get over and see them all because I haven’t actually seen that side of my family for a long time because of the Covid situation.
“I have cousins who are further north, so they are all scattered around a bit. They are all following me and Celtic now, and planning on coming to watch me.”
O’riley hopes he can make progress towards the full Denmark side.
During his initial discussions with the coaching team – which includes former Celtic and Dundee midfielder, Morten Wieghorst – they told him that 18 of the 24 players in the senior squad had all come through the Under-21s.
He would love to get the chance to play with Christian Eriksen (right), who has made such an amazing comeback after suffering a cardiac arrest at last year’s Euros.
He said: “The headlines this week over in Denmark have been about the return of Eriksen into the national team again.
“It’s a huge thing for the country, and they are all so excited that he is back in the team.
“I would definitely like to play alongside him one day.
“I watched all of the Euros, and I watched that game against
Finland. It was awful to see, and really scary just to watch it from a distance.
“Even if you aren’t a Danish fan, I think everyone sympathised with what happened, and it is fantastic now to see him back playing at Brentford.
“It shows how good the treatment was, and how advanced medical science is that he has been able to come back from something so serious and feel confident of getting back to the level before. “He is obviously feeling fit again, which is just amazing to see.”