Thursday, September 19, 2024

Matt O’Riley: Brighton sign Celtic and Denmark midfielder for £25m

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Brighton have signed midfielder Matt O’Riley from Scottish champions Celtic for a fee of £25m.

The London-born Denmark international has signed a five-year contract until June 2029.

O’Riley, 23, scored 27 goals in 124 appearances for Celtic, winning six trophies including three Scottish Premiership titles.

The deal matches the Scottish transfer record fee paid to Celtic by Al-Ittihad for Jota last summer, and Kieran Tierney’s £25m switch to Arsenal in 2019.

It also represents a significant profit on the reported £1.5m Celtic signed O’Riley for from MK Dons in 2022.

Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler said O’Riley’s abilities as a box-to-box midfielder made him “special”.

“He is a great character, and has a good ambition to succeed and that’s something which is very important for us,” Hurzeler added.

O’Riley becomes Brighton’s seventh signing of a busy summer that includes a £40m club-record deal for French forward Georginio Rutter from Leeds and Netherlands midfielder Mats Wieffer joining from Feyenoord for about £25.5m.

Hurzeler’s side are second in the Premier League after beating Everton and Manchester United in their opening two games of the season.

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