Nigerian Striker Reveals Why He Was On Radar Of Top Clubs

Nigerian Striker Reveals Why He Was On Radar Of Top Clubs

Ibrahim Lateef

Super Eagles striker Cyriel Dessers admits he knew nothing of Celtic's interest in him three years ago, but revealed he was in talks with Rangers.

Former Hoops boss Neil Lennon admitted that the Gers' new £4.5million man was on his radar while Parkhead boss during Covid.

Dessers had just finished as the joint-top scorer in the Eredivise and was attracting interest from across Europe. And while he admits he wasn't aware of Celtic being keen on securing his services, he was in contact with their Glasgow rivals as far back as then.

A deal wasn't possible, but club and player remained in contact and finally, Michael Beale was able to bring in the hitman from Cremonese this summer. he replaces the departed Alfredo Morelos and will be expected to plunder enough goals to allow Rangers to least mount a serious Scottish Premiership title challenge and prove that good things do come to those who wait.

He said of Lennon's comments: "No, I didn't know anything about that at the time. I spoke a couple of times with Rangers in the past years and the contact has always been close. So I'm happy to finally be here now after it was finally possible to make a deal.

"If you score goals, you will probably be on some clubs' radar. That's not a real issue for me, I’m fine with being here and I'm happy to be here.

"I don't know how much I can say about this (Rangers' previous interest) because it's pretty private, of course. But I think the first contact was after I became top scorer in the Eredivise.

"It was during Covid so it was a difficult time for a lot of clubs to make deals. After that, the contact was always there. It wasn't always in the form of an offer, but there was always some informing on both sides and some casual conversations."

Dessers was a man in demand this summer. He revealed he could have remained in Italy and had plenty of options, but refused to go into any further details, instead insisting that Rangers was the best choice for him.

He added: "It's not easy to just call the names of all the clubs that informed me this summer - I don't know if they will be happy if I do that! Of course I had some options to stay in Italy. There were also other options again in Belgium and the Netherlands.

"But I don't think it's smart to name names! Rangers is massive and I like what is happening here."