Jake O’Brien on moving through the Cork City ranks and working with Patrick Viera at Crystal Palace

ONE day back in 2020 Jake O’Brien was lining out against Mayfield United in the Munster Senior Cup.

Three years later he is worth seven figures, has experience of playing against Manchester United and Liverpool, and he helped RWD Molenbeek win the Challenger Pro-League while on loan from Crystal Palace.

Everything happened quite quickly, and he has barely had time to take everything in. The one thing that has carried him through this period is a sense of belonging, that he knows where he is from and what he represents.

This isn’t just about Youghal, but the club that took a chance on him when he was a teenager.

That was the original plan, get noticed by Cork City and see where that takes him.

“Growing up that was always the first step I wanted to take, to get into the Cork City team,” he said.

It was even a big thing, making the academy. There were so many good players in demand.

“So even making the 17s team back then was a huge thing for me but then I developed with good coaching up there and came through the ranks of U17s and U19s and eventually I got into the first team.”

When O’Brien got into the senior team, Alan Bennett took him under his wing.

The former Irish international mentored his young team-mate, and O’Brien soaked up every bit of knowledge that was shared with him.

“(I learned) loads,” he talked about his relationship with Bennett.

“He was playing ahead of me at the start. Being the experienced player that he was, he taught me a few things.

“I kind of just learned from watching him as well because he is such an experienced player.

“There was probably no better player in Cork to learn from back then.”

When Bennett’s work was done, O’Brien went to Crystal Palace on loan at the height of the pandemic.

“It was a bit different, moving in the middle of the pandemic,” he reflected. “I went over on a trial initially for ten days and impressed and they wanted me back.

“A few weeks later I signed on loan with the option to buy. Which worked out well because after three weeks being over there they wanted to buy me.

“But even going over there was different because everything was closed over the pandemic.

“I was in digs for five months with not much to do and I couldn’t really go out and meet people and such outside of training. It was good because I was looking forward to going into training every day, which I still do.

“I couldn’t go out and meet people or do simple things like going shopping.”

O’Brien’s sole focus was Premier League 2, a competition designed for player development.

“It’s difficult to compare to any first-team league because it is different,” he explained.

“It’s like academy football where you have a panel of players and Premier League players would drop down for game time. It’s not always players who are under 23. You could have senior players.

“So sometimes you would come up against top players that you would have watched on TV.

It’s a good league. It is a good league to play in. You want to be playing max one or two years.

“You don’t want to get too much into it. It is good to go out and get first-team football to help with your development.”

SETTLE

Once O’Brien settled in, he started training with the Palace senior team under then-manager Patrick Vieira.

“I trained with the Palace first team a good bit during the year that I was there,” O’Brien said. "He was a brilliant coach. His philosophy was top-notch as well, the way he wanted the team to play.

“At the start it was surreal. You see clips of him playing and he is one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.

“When I went to train under him as well was a bit surreal.

Obviously with the training with Palace, you have to go in with 100% every day.

“There’s no messing around as well because this is a Premier League team. It was a privilege to play under him for pre-season. He is a brilliant coach.”

His newest career milestone was the league title with RWD Molenbeek, and that came from loan spell that allowed O’Brien to develop his skills as a modern defender that knows how to play football.

“The style of football was very technical and tactical. If you want to be a ball-playing player like I would like to be, then I think it is the perfect move. It is not too physical,” he explained.

“It turned out to be a good move and we got promotion as well.”