Australia international goalkeeper Mathew Ryan has made a mid-season move from Italian side Roma to Lens.
But the shotstopper, capped 96 times, could have ended up in Glasgow after being courted by both Rangers and Celtic – EIGHT years apart!
The 32-year-old has had a nomadic football career which has taken him to all corners of the globe, starting out in his homeland Down Under with Blacktown City and Central Coast Mariners while enjoying spells in Belgium, England, Spain, Denmark, Italy and now France.
Scotland isn’t included on that list but it wasn’t for the want of trying. Rangers were first to express interest when Ryan was at the Mariners and he was due to fly across the world for a trial at Auchenhowie. That was 12 years ago this month when Ryan was just 20 years old and it seemed like a dream chance but the giant keeper opted to turn down the opportunity.
The reason? He was concerned after a reconstruction row – not for the first time – had broken out in Scottish football. Rangers were in their first season in the bottom tier following the club’s financial collapse but there plans for a a 12-12-18 set-up which would have denied the Ibrox club promotion from the Third Division and kept them in the bottom league.
Then boss Ally McCoist hit out at the time, saying: “It’s a farce, it’s just farcical. You can’t do it. It’s just not right. The people who came up with the sporting integrity term must accept it’s not right.
“You can’t suddenly make this season meaningless. By all means move the goalposts but do it at the start of the season or the end of the season, not during the season. As soon as they make a decision, our league is fish and chip paper. So if it is, please tell us now.”
News of that reached Australian, and Ryan wasn’t having it. His manager at the time was Ayrshireman Lawrie McKinna, who played for Kilmarnock and is now Mayor or Mayor of Central Coast Council after emigrating to Australia, and he said: “Mat Ryan’s reason for not going to Rangers on trial next week was that he wanted to know what league they will play and they wont know yet. He chose not to go.”
Ryan ended up joining Club Brugge before a move to Valencia and the English Premier League with Brighton, during which he had a loan spell at Arsenal. It was during the time he emerged as a target for Celtic who were on the lookout for a keeper during Ange Postecoglou’s first season.
Postecoglou made Ryan No. 1 during his time as Australia boss and took him to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the player spoke in gushing terms about him, saying: “All the principles and characteristics that he instills as a manager are the benchmark in terms of experiences I’ve had with other managers. His speeches in the last team meeting on a match day, every time you walk out of there you want to run through a brick wall for him.”
But that admiration wasn’t enough to convince him to move to Parkhead as he instead chose to return to La Liga, this time with Real Sociedad and that forced Postecolgou to look elsewhere, signing Joe Hart.