Matt O’Riley is a big fan of his Celtic teammate Kyogo with the English born Danish U21 international midfielder stating that the Japanese goalscorer is one of the nicest guys he knows. O’Riley scored twice at Rugby Park on Sunday in Celtic convincing 4-1 win with Kyogo opening the early floodgates with a brilliantly taken goal to break the deadlock. He could have doubled his tally but instead struck a penalty kick against the Kilmarnock post – but was still all smiles, despite the missed opportunity.
“He’s probably the nicest man I’ve ever met. That guy could miss four open goals in a game and still be smiling, which I find incredible. It shows the kind of guy he is and it’s really nice to have someone like that in your team,” Matt O’Riley observed, as reported by Daily Record.
“He knows he’s already got… I don’t know how many goals, so I don’t think he’s too fussed about missing one. It’s not just on the pitch with what you see, he’s genuinely the nicest man I’ve met. Regardless of whether they miss or score, they’re still going to work hard.”
One moment that made a real impression on O’Riley from the weekends match was seeing Kyogo chase back deep inside his own half to snuff out a rare Kilmarnock attack.
“I remember it perfectly because I gave away the ball and he covered me nicely! That shows the character of everyone in our team,” Matt said. “It doesn’t matter who makes a mistake, someone else is going to be there to rectify it. I think we’ve shown that across the course of the season.
“It showed last week as well. It wasn’t our most fluid performance (against theRangers) but we gave everything and that was enough to get us over the line.”
Sunday also saw two of the January signings – Yuki Kobayashi and Tomoki Iwata – both starting and it’s fair to say both put on impressive showings. “That just shows the depth of our squad. Yuki and Tomoki have come in from another country and culture and have settled in really quickly,” O’Riley said.
“And it helps that they are both genuinely very nice people as well, so they’ve settled into our culture very easily. They are both really making an effort to speak English with us which definitely helps. On the pitch you can see they are enjoying themselves. Yuki probably hasn’t played as much as he wants to but when he’s been asked he’s performed really well.
“We have got a lot of different nationalities in that team, with a nice blend of Japanese and pure Scottish guys who keep it, well, Scottish! It’s quite unique. It’s a nice balance. There are no hard feelings if someone plays over you. We’re still all going to chat and be friends.
“I don’t really find it challenging in that sense because they are all so nice. I don’t think that hinders us. It’s probably a benefit. Competition, in my opinion, always helps you play better.
“Last season personally I had that with Tom (Rogic) and to be able to compete with and also have the respect of someone like that definitely makes you play better. I’ve got that this season, with so many good midfield players and the higher the level each one of us can play, then it will continue to push the other players.”
