LAST UPDATE | 12 Feb 2023
JAKE O’BRIEN is gradually adapting to his new life in Belgium.
Not everything has been straightforward — not even routine trips to the cinema.
“The other day I was actually watching Avatar,” he tells The42. “I had to go twice. The first time I went in I [belatedly] realised it was in Dutch.
“I thought they were speaking some Avatar language for the first 10 minutes. I thought: ‘This is strange,’ and then I realised it was in Dutch.’”
The English language version proved worth the wait ultimately.
“It was kind of long, but it was decent,” he says.
The transition on the pitch has thankfully been more seamless in what has been an interesting few months for the Ireland U21 international.
Roughly four years have passed since he made the first of nine Premier Division appearances with Cork City.
In February 2021, he joined Premier League side Crystal Palace, initially on loan and then permanently.
The Irish connection helped — Stephen Rice and Paddy McCarthy were both on the coaching staff at the time he signed.
Last season, he experienced his first taste of English senior football on loan in League Two with Swindon Town, playing 21 times in all competitions including substitute appearances in both play-off semi-final matches versus Port Vale, as they lost out on penalties.
Shortly thereafter, having spent pre-season training in Australia with the Palace first team, O’Brien opted for the road less travelled.
The list of Irish footballers who have spent a season or more in Belgium is not a long one, although there are a couple of notable examples. It certainly did not work out too badly for another talented young Irish centre-back, with John O’Shea making 14 appearances for Royal Antwerp in the Belgian First Division before establishing himself in Man United’s first team.
A connection had previously been established between Palace and Molenbeek, while Mark Bright, the former Eagles striker who has since gone on to become the club’s loans manager, encouraged him to make the move.
O’Brien travelled over initially on a day trip to test the water along with another young player, Luke Plange.
Both liked what they saw and proceeded to sign with the club, although the Irish defender no longer has his Palace teammate for company, with Plange recalled by the Eagles and opting to make another January loan move, closer to home with League One outfit Lincoln City.
“I just think it was something different to help develop me in a different way,” says O’Brien. “The technical ability over here is of a higher standard. There’s less of the physicality side, which I don’t think I need to develop anymore. I think I’m a physical player anyway.
“As well, I think it will help my chances of getting into the first team at Palace, even more. It’s just a move up a grade if I’m to get in — the old traditional route is to move up [the leagues] in England and I wanted to try something new.”
Having barely settled in England after leaving Cork, he admits to initially feeling somewhat reluctant about the prospect of playing in Belgium. He didn’t speak French or Dutch — two of the main languages spoken at Molenbeek — and still doesn’t. However, English is also widely spoken in the region and the 21-year-old has enough basic phrases to get by in training.
“I think at the start when the move came about, a lot of people wrote me off thinking not that he’s finished, but he’s not going to make it, he’s not going to do this.
“But people are looking at it differently now since I went over and I’m starting to do well.”
On adapting to his new surroundings, O’Brien adds: “The team is very multi-cultural really. I think everyone has a way of communicating with each other and picking up things from each other.
“I’m picking up on their languages and obviously, their English is improving as well. So even [compared with] six months ago, the whole bonding of the team is different. And I think that helps us on the pitch as well.”
O’Brien says he used the perceived criticism and the doubts over whether he would make it in Belgium as fuel.
“People wrote me off,” he reiterates. “So that motivated me to do more, to put in extra work and prove people wrong.
“And I’m after developing a lot more in the last six months than I have in the past two years [before], to be honest, and I just can’t wait to go back and show people.”
Young footballers can either wilt or thrive in the face of criticism, and after establishing himself as a regular in a Molenbeek team currently top of the Belgian second tier, there is no ambiguity as to how the centre-back has responded to the challenge.
“It comes down to what kind of person you are, you can take it as a bad thing and hide in a hole. Or else, you can come out and prove people wrong.
“And the sort of person I am, it just motivated me to put my head down and work. Now we’re top of the table and hopefully can get a promotion at the end of the season.”
After an initial hectic period that saw him moving between hotels in the first few weeks after the transfer, O’Brien now feels settled off the field as well. He has his own apartment 10 minutes away from the training ground and his girlfriend lives in Belgium too, while his family come over for frequent visits.
The youngster is enjoying himself more so compared to on his last loan in England, which was hampered by an ankle injury and a period out with Covid, whereas it has been a “clean slate” so far at Molenbeek.
He recently headed home his second goal of the season amid an important 2-1 win over Lierse and has been a virtual ever-present in the starting XI since signing, primarily playing in the centre of a three-man backline.
The club are top of the table at the time of writing and face a big game against third-place Beerschot later today.
The format of the league is not straightforward, however. After 22 matches, it splits in two, with O’Brien and co set to contest the final 10 fixtures against the other five best-placed teams in the division, with only one promotion spot up for grabs and everyone playing each other twice.
It is consequently set to be an exciting climax, though it might have been a relegation battle rather than a promotion push that O’Brien was involved in had things panned out differently.
According to reports in England, Bristol City scouts travelled to Belgium to watch the youngster and came away impressed.
As the January deadline approached, Nigel Pearson’s side, who are struggling at the wrong end of the Championship table, targeted the player on loan with a view to a permanent deal.
However, the transfer never materialised and O’Brien says he did not pay too much attention to this speculation.
“I saw there was interest from Bristol and it is flattering when clubs come in for you, especially the size of Bristol playing in the Championship. But I don’t really deal with the business side as such — if things materialise, they do, if they don’t, they don’t.
“I was just focused on Molenbeek and I still am, to achieve promotion. It’s great to have interest because it means I’m doing my job on the pitch. But I just focus on the tasks on the field.”
Once the current campaign concludes, the Youghal native expects to spend another preseason with the Palace first team and “then we’ll see how up to speed I am with them”.
His current contract with the Eagles is due to expire in the summer of 2024 and after an encouraging few months in Belgium, O’Brien is likely to have plenty of suitors should he opt to move on.
Nonetheless, the feedback from Palace has been positive of late, and manager Patrick Vieira is well aware of the player.
“Definitely, I see myself playing in the Premier League someday,” he says. “So hopefully it happens sooner rather than later. And I put myself about to be in Patrick Vieira’s eyes to play.
“I had a good few conversations with [Vieira] and he’s a good guy. He’s a calm coach but he brings his aggressiveness in sometimes if it’s not up to standard.
“Just just like any coach, he just says to enjoy yourself. His style of play is to get it down and play. So if you make a mistake, it’s okay. Just focus on the next one.
“He can be calm, but you don’t want to be on his bad side.”
Breaking into the Ireland senior setup is another long-term ambition, having played regularly with the U21s in the last campaign (he won’t be eligible for Jim Crawford’s side in forthcoming qualifiers).
“If I keep progressing and getting up to the big stage, then eventually I might get that phone call. But obviously, in my position, there is a lot of competition. I see myself playing in there someday. If I just keep doing what I’m doing and keep progressing, it will happen.”
With similarly talented young centre-backs like Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea and Andrew Omobamidele currently ahead of him in the pecking order, sceptics might feel O’Brien remains a long way off Stephen Kenny’s plans. However, the reservations of those naysayers will merely be music to the player’s ears, as he is no stranger to defying expectations.
“I know I’m big, six foot seven nearly, so I think people when they look at me don’t think I’m technical.
“But when you see me on the pitch, I think that’s probably the main part of my game — I like to play nice football.
“I don’t think people know that I’m fast. They jump to conclusions before looking.”
He continues: “There were times in my career when I was younger, say 16-17, where I probably doubted myself a small bit. I wasn’t sure and got looked down upon by other players until I developed in size.
“And I probably got looked down upon until I started to develop my game on the pitch and my size.
“I was a late developer, but in saying that, I did work a lot in the gym because I was always conscious of my size. Growing up, I was very small. But then I put three or four years of work into the gym and it didn’t happen overnight, as some people think.
“I can’t really say there was one point [where my outlook changed], but it would happen on multiple occasions where other people get picked over you, etc.
“But then I just put my head down, really. It happened over three years. I was fortunate because all my friends were into the gym anyway. So I kind of just tagged along with them and just worked on and off the pitch.
“And then when I hit 18, people saw that side of the game with me.”