TO LOOK AT Jake O’Brien now you’d be tempted to make a pretty quick assumption about the towering 6ft 4in defender.
You might think he had been earmarked from an early age as someone head and shoulders – quite literally in his case – above his counterparts.
And you’d be wrong.
The former Cork City centre back has become a colossus for Ligue 1 giants Lyon this season and, at the age of 22, has earned his first senior Republic of Ireland call-up on the back of a staggering rise since a €1 million move from Crystal Palace, via a loan spell with RWD Molenbeek in Belgium’s second tier.
It was a very modern transfer given that American billionaire John Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings owns all three clubs.
But O’Brien is not a young star who got a head start because of his height.
Quite the opposite.
He only made his international bow at U21 level in 2021 and while he grew up with Adam Idah on the Leeside schoolboy scene, first getting to know the striker “from around 10 or 11″, their trajectories were markedly different.
“I wasn’t as physically developed enough to compete with these players. It was only 16, 17 things started coming for me in terms of physicality. When I was at Cork City it was about putting it together, physicality and developing before going over to England,” he says.
“Ever since I was young I always believed I could play for Ireland. It was more about patience and taking the opportunity when it came. Everyone develops at different stages and for me it was a later stage to other players, but I always believed in myself.”
O’Brien was a midfielder and forward in his early teens, while also playing hurling and impressing in the boxing ring.
Enjoyable first few days with the boys 🤙🏼💚 @IrelandFootball pic.twitter.com/SWP2hdCCds
— Jake O’Brien (@obrienjake_) March 19, 2024
“Learning different aspects of different sports and taking things away from all of them. It’s made me the player that I am,” O’Brien says. “But football was always the one I enjoyed most.”
A turning point to help improve that physicality came at the age of 16. After being told that he wasn’t strong enough to compete at international level after an unsuccessful trial for Ireland’s U16s, O’Brien returned to Cork determined to improve.
He changed his diet, increased his gym work and continued with boxing. The weight and muscle should have increased, instead he became more gaunt.
That is when tests in hospital over the course of one week uncovered that he was a Type 1 diabetic. He now takes insulin to regulate his blood sugar and has learned to manage his body for games.
He scored a late winner for Lyon in a 3-2 win over Toulouse before joining up with interim boss John O’Shea’s squad for the friendlies with Belgium and Switzerland.
His four goals in 22 games provide an indication of the unexpected strides he has made in France. Lyon struggled under former boss Laurent Blanc and didn’t win a game until November – O’Brien scored that winner too – but the Youghal man had his chance and took it.
Fabio Grosso was Blanc’s replacement by that stage and he was at the helm for just two months before Pierre Sage took over in a season of disarray that is now beginning to turn around. O’Brien continues to keep former Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren, whom he describes as ” a good person to talk to and learn from”, out of the side while the supporters’ protests that blighted his early days in the city are no more.
“There is pressure as a club because the fans can be on you, but I think they have a right to because of the size of club it is,” he says.
“But for a young player, that’s what you have to do. You have to go in and try to win games. It’s not about developing any more, it’s about winning. Especially for Lyon who are used to winning.”
Taking that same mentality into the Ireland camp is key, and while the likes of Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea and Andrew Omobamidele are three Premier League rivals more established in the set-up, he may also be the perfect penalty box threat to fill the Shane Duffy-shaped void.
“For me, it’s to up the levels and train with these players, to really enjoy it and see.”
O’Brien has already made a habit of disrupting the status quo this season.
