With an eye on Paris, Tilio eyes rebound from disapointing Celtic stint at City

Knowing that the next few months will be crucial towards his hopes of playing at a second Olympics, Marco Tilio is looking to rebound from a frustating time at Celtic on loan at Melbourne City.

Back in the A-League Men as he looks to jump-start his club career after a frustrating stint with Celtic, Marco Tilio has a couple of pretty straightforward goals for his time on loan at Melbourne City. Play as many minutes as possible and get to Paris 2024. 

Tilio, 22, set a new record as the most expensive outbound transfer in Australian domestic history (one since broken by Joe Gacui’s move to Aston Villa) when he departed City for Celtic last offseason, on a fee reported to be worth £1.5 million. 

However, an injury-interrupted pre-season meant that the young winger struggled to force his way into the plans of Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers, logging just 28 competitive minutes across two senior appearances at Parkhead. 

Heading into a year in which the Olyroos will attempt to qualify for their second-straight Olympic Games – he was part of the squad that downed Argentina at Tokyo 2020 – this lack of minutes induced Tilio to return to City on loan for the remainder of 2023-24, heading straight to Casey after the Socceroos’ elimination from the Asian Cup. 

“[Celtic] supported me in my decision,” Tilio said on Thursday. “I wasn't getting the game time that I wanted so for me, it was important that for the next six months that I play as much as I possibly can. 

“I went over there, did my medical and I had an injury, which kept me out for the first three months on my arrival, that wasn't ideal. Going into a squad like Celtic is never going to be easy and I missed preseason so I was always playing catch up. 

“When I got there, I knew what I was in for and I just wanted to get myself as fit as possible and try to play. The first few months, I felt I got to the speed of what the other boys were at and probably deserved to play, have an opportunity to play. 

“But there's a lot of players with a lot of quality and it's never going to be easy. So it was a tough six months for my football but it's always a learning curve for me and we'll see what happens in the future.”

Tilio, however, was quick to establish that he didn’t think he’d made the move to Celtic too early in his career, having made 70 senior appearances for City before he departed, debuted for the Socceroos, and already been to a World Cup. 

“I believed I was ready, I’d done my time here,” he said. And I thought I'd done really well and the build-up til then when I made that decision to go there, I thought I was ready.

"You can't tell in football obviously, I went away with the under-23s and got injured. I then thought it was a week [long] injury. I signed the contract and obviously, I was injured and out for three months. 

"So it doesn't help and then you're competing with eight or nine other wingers that are just as good as you if not better and it was always going to be a difficult road trying to get into that Celtic team of Celtic. 

"But no, I don’t think I left too early."

The attacker surpassed his sum total of Celtic minutes in his return to City on Saturday, coming off the bench and logging 32 minutes in their 5-1 loss to Brisbane. 

A former Sydney FC junior, the Sky Blues also had reported interest in bringing Tilio in on loan but he said that City was the obvious destination; a place where he feels he could play the most minutes and prepare for the Olympics. 

“I had an opportunity to come back and to give back to the club that nurtured me and brought me here as a young player,” he said.

“They gave me every opportunity and helped me grow as a player and I can only thank them for the time here before and I want to hopefully repay them.

“It's an important six months for me. We've got the Asian Cup in April with the 23s and that's the Olympic qualifiers, so that's a massive thing for the 23s.

“I want to help the team qualify for another Olympics and for myself, if I can get myself to another Olympic Games, it'd be pretty special. So that played a big factor in my return.”

The AFC U23 Championships will be staged in Qatar in April this year, where Australia has been drawn in a group with the host nation, Jordan, and Indonesia.

The top three finishers from that tournament will qualify for Paris 2024, while the fourth-placed team will face off with African side Guinea in an AFC–CAF play-off with a spot on the line. 

That tournament will take place outside the international window but Tilio confirmed that City had been made well aware that he would be heading to Doha if selected.