From UCD to Champions League nights with Celtic, Liam Scales cuts a path for others to follow

As recently as 2018 Liam Scales won a Collingwood medal. On the same UCD team as Georgie Kelly, they beat Queen’s in the final. Five years later, he has been tussling with Feyenoord and Lazio front men before two wildly contrasting nights against Atlético Madrid.

From a chastening 6-0 defeat in Madrid to thumping former club Aberdeen by the same score five days later, this is life at Glasgow Celtic.

“That Atlético Madrid game, I don’t think I played against an opposition that has controlled the game like that, but I’m sure France and the Netherlands, those big nations, would be at that elite standard.”

Scales is about to find out. Unless Stephen Kenny has a change of heart, the 25-year-old will win a third cap at the Johan Cruyff Arena on Saturday.

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Worlds apart, from Arklow to Amsterdam, from intervarsity ball to the Champions League, this Wicklow man has cut a path for others to follow.

“I actually just met Stephen McGuinness [the PFAI general secretary] and he presented me with my PFAI team of the year medal from 2021,” said Scales of the 18 months at Shamrock Rovers. “I never got it because I went to Celtic before the awards. So that was a nice touch.

“It’s a good pathway. The League of Ireland is brilliant. The fact that young players aren’t really able to go to the UK because of Brexit is brilliant.

“I keep an eye on the league and you see the likes of [Sam] Curtis at Pat’s who has played a lot of senior games and he is still only 17. That is going to really help him in his career moving forward. He might stay at Pat’s, but if he goes on now he has senior games under his belt and clubs abroad really value that. It’s a great pathway and I do hope more people follow that.”

Having spent three seasons at UCD, the wonder is when Champions League nights slipped into his consciousness.

“Probably the week before it happened. I didn’t really think at UCD that that’s where I’d end up. I never really looked too far into the future, so at UCD, Rovers and even at Aberdeen I was just focusing on the next game and consistently doing well. Once those couple of injuries happened and I played against Rangers and did well, I thought maybe I could keep this spot here and play in these massive games coming up, and it’s been a great experience.”

From a false start at St Joseph’s Boys in Sallynoggin, going back to the Leinster League and Arklow Town, to a football scholarship where he studied Irish and Geography at UCD, on to Shamrock Rovers, Aberdeen and now, quite suddenly, he’s a key figure in Paradise under Brendan Rodgers.

“I came back into pre-season with Celtic and most people thought I was going to go back to Aberdeen. It was sort of in the pipeline, there was talk of it happening. I think I’ve surprised in the sense that maybe I wasn’t fully in the picture, then a few injuries happened and I was thrown straight in and did well, and I’ve held my place now.”

The fact that Scales can cope under the burning lights of being Irish-born at Celtic encouraged Kenny to cap him against Greece in October after two years patiently making up the numbers in the Ireland squad.

“I’ve loved working with Stephen,” he said. “He brought me into the Under-21s when he was manager there and I was at UCD. Maybe there were players playing at a higher level or playing in academies in Premier League clubs and I was picked ahead of them because I was playing men’s football and he knew the importance of that. He has always backed me, I suppose, and I’ve enjoyed working with him. That’s all I can say. He has shown lots of faith in me and I really appreciate that.”

One of the 20 players introduced to the international scene by Kenny, he finds it difficult to witness the Ireland manager’s current situation.

“Definitely. The results, it’s down to us as well and they haven’t been good enough. Everyone can see that. It’s tough because you know he loves the job so much, it’s the dream job for someone like him. It’s tough to see him go through that.”