Worth more than Cerny & Dessers: Rangers struck gold with outstanding star
da mrbet： Just how far can Rangers go in this season’s Europa League?
da brwin： On Thursday night, the Light Blues took a gigantic step towards the quarter-finals, thanks to a famous 3-1 victory over Fenerbahçe at Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium.
So, assuming Barry Ferguson’s side can complete the job back at Ibrox next Thursday, they’ll face either Roma or Athletic Club in the last eight in April; that tie is perfectly poised following I Giallorossi’s 2-1 victory in the Italian capital.
This would be the Gers’ 13th appearance in a major European quarter-final, memorably getting all the way to the Europa League Final just three seasons ago, and if they’re to repeat those exploits, they’ll need one rising star in particular to be at his best.
Rangers' Thursday night heroes
Rangers’ stars of the victory in İstanbul were, unquestionably, the two scorers: Václav Černý and Cyriel Dessers.
The Czech winger netted twice, on target at the end of both halves, taking his tally to six in the Europa League this season, second only to Ayoub El Kaabi of Olympiacos, who scored when the Gers visited Piraeus in November, one of his seven strikes in the tournament.
Meantime, Dessers actually had the ball in the net on three occasions, albeit both of his second-half goals were disallowed for very marginal offsides.
The Nigerian’s goal that did count came after just six minutes, rounding goalkeeper İrfan Can Eğribayat before his shot made it over the line by mere picometres, despite Çağlar Söyüncü’s best efforts to clear.
Scottish Football analyst John Walker stated that this was Dessers’ “best match for Rangers”, with Gavin Berry of the Daily Record describing his performance as ‘superb’, while Fenerbahçe boss José Mourinho claimed “today, Dessers looked like the best player in the world”, which is high praise indeed.
While this attacking duo are getting all the plaudits, and deservedly so, could another Rangers forward, who was reduced to a late cameo on the Asian side of the Bosporus Strait, be their key man for the remainder of this European escapade?
Rangers' highest-value attacker
Many were surprised that Hamza Igamane was only named on the bench in Turkey on Thursday, but one cannot argue with Ferguson, considering the end result.
Market Movers
The 22-year-old Moroccan has exceeded all expectations since arriving in Glasgow from Botola side Association sportive des Forces armées royales, or AS FAR for short, in the summer for a reported fee of £2.5m, having been lauded as “outstanding” by data analyst Ben Mattinson.
The striker has 13 goals to his name this season, four of which have come in the Europa League, while he also bagged a perfect hat-trick at Hibernian in January, during a time he was, as Anthony Evans of the Daily Record puts it, in ‘red-hot form’.
Meantime, Matthew Elder of the Scotsman believes him to be the Scottish Premiership’s ‘signing of the season’, while Keith Jackson of the Daily Record labels him a ‘superstar’, so let’s assess how Igamane compares to Rangers’ other attackers.
Rangers’ highest-scorers 2024/25
Players
Goals
Assists
Cyriel Dessers
22
7
Václav Černý
17
7
Hamza Igamane
13
3
Danilo
6
3
Mohamed Diomandé
5
7
Nedim Bajrami
5
4
Tom Lawrence
5
2
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt
As alluded to earlier, Rangers paid just £2.5m for Igamane last summer, described as a “jackpot transfer” by Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout.
Indeed, in January, amidst interest from Everton, the club reportedly placed a £25m price tag on Igamane’s head, with that figure far exceeding the current valuations of both Dessers and Cerny.
Reports during the winter window claimed that Dessers could depart for a fee of around £6m, while in the case of Cerny, it has been reported that a permanent deal could be struck for £6.75m.
Should Igamane depart for that amount, it would make him the club’s record sale, currently held by Calvin Bassey’s £19.6m move to Ajax in 2022. For Rangers’ sake, however, they’ll be hoping he sticks around for a little while longer yet.
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