Matt O’Riley talks about ‘unique experience’ of Marseille loan spell | OneFootball

Danish international midfielder Matt O’Riley (25) has been speaking to BBC Sussex about his loan period at Olympique de Marseille, having now returned to parent club Brighton and Hove Albion.

Asked about his time in the south of France, O’Riley responded, “It was definitely an experience – that’s for sure!” He took lots of positives from that experience, saying that “I’m really happy that I did it, genuinely. I think it was really good for me, especially mentally, to be able to deal with playing under that kind of pressure – because it’s pretty relentless there.”

“But I really enjoyed aspects of it. There were some challenging parts as well but I feel like I’ve come back a much more mature and stable person, which is what I wanted.”

On what he learned during his time at the Vélodrome, O’Riley said that “just playing and living in another country is a big step, taking me out of my comfort zone, which was probably the main reason I wanted to do it. New coach, different languages – that was quite tough getting used to. Football-wise I learnt a lot. Obviously a different style to here, slightly. A different league – a physical league, actually. And I got to play quite a lot of football, which is what I wanted to do.”

Asked about coming back to the current downbeat feel at Brighton, whose recent form has been poor, O’Riley noted that “I’ve come from a club where the atmosphere is pretty intense so to acclimatise to this has been pretty easy for me. I want to bring my good energy to the team after having six months away in the sun.”

O’Riley made 15 Ligue 1 appearances for Marseille, scoring one goal, as well as featuring in seven Champions League matches.

GFFN | Jeremy Smith