Celtic this evening formally announced the signing of Matt O’Riley, from MK Dons for a fee of around £1.5m, with add-ons, on a four-and-a-half-year deal, subject to international clearance, which will see him remain at the club until at least the summer of 2026.
The highly-rated 21-year-old midfielder becomes Ange Postecoglou’s fifth signing of the January transfer window, following the arrival of Daizen Maeda, Yosuke Ideguchi, Reo Hatate and Johnny Kenny. Matt came through the Fulham Youth Academy and made his first-team debut for the club back in August 2017 at the age of just 16. He made five appearances in total for the club before signing for MK Dons in January 2021.
"First time taking the stadium in – even better than I thought it would be. Yeah, just to put it simply, just really, really happy to be here."
Matt O'Riley pic.twitter.com/2rgtKu7LMh— CelticQuote (@CelticQuote) January 20, 2022
Since then, he’s gone on to make 52 appearances for the English League One club, scoring nine goals including seven this season, helping push MK Dons to fifth in the table.
And in his customary ‘Welcome to Celtic’ video Celtic’s new Bhoy reveals that despite having other options, a telephone call from Ange Postecoglou was all that it took to make up his mind that Celtic was the club he wanted to join. “It feels amazing. First time taking the stadium in. It’s even better than I thought it would be and I’m really happy to be here,” Matt O’Riley told Celtic TV as he marvelled at playing in front of 60,000 Celtic supporters in Paradise.
Here’s Matt O’Riley welcome to Celtic video, enjoy!
