Ex-Rangers defender Leon Balogun has been talking about his summer Ibrox exit – and suggested that Ross Wilson tried to convince Giovanni van Bronckhorst to keep him.
The Nigerian international centre-back, 33, made no bones about his desire to stay at Rangers and made an impassioned public plea after the club lifted the Scottish Cup.
Speaking after the 2-0 win over Hearts, Leon Balogun claimed he’d “fallen in love” with Rangers and that he’d “love to stay” after initially signing a two-year contract at Ibrox.
But as things would transpire the defender would be released and Rangers went on to sign John Souttar and Ben Davies as centre-back reinforcements. Both have struggled with injury all season long.
Plenty have claimed that Rangers made a mistake in letting Leon Balogun go – not least Ally McCoist – and now the QPR man has opened up on the exit.
Leon Balogun claims Rangers exit was “heartbreak”
Speaking to the Beautiful Game podcast, Leon Balogun claims he caught “blue fever” and being asked to leave Ibrox hurt so much because it’s something he never seen coming.
The defender also suggested that Ross Wilson spent some time trying to convince Giovanni van Bronckhorst – who had the final call – to allow him to stay.
“For me it was a sad departure from Rangers, I loved the club and I really got infected by the Blue Fever, and that’ll be for life,” said Balogun.
“It’s not that I regret being at QPR now but it was a heartbreak for me to leave Rangers. It was because I did not leave Rangers, I was released. That’s the fair way to put it. And I did not really expect it. At one point down the line I got prepared for it, but I still didn’t expect it.
“We were talking about a new contract but I didn’t ever receive an offer and it was just conversations really. I asked my agent around March what was going on because my contract was coming to an end.
“I told him it was clear I wanted to stay as I had found my football home there. That’s what Disco, one of the masseuses, used to say ‘you have found home here,’ and that hit home for me because I never thought about it like that.
“But he was right. We were busy with games at the time and then there was a meeting for them to decide. They were talking about the legalities about the contract and what they thought it could look like.
“It was pretty much about agreeing a base, a foundation of how we were going to carry on from there. But to me it felt like a drag. At the end of the day, we sent them an offer a few days before my contract ended.
“We didn’t hear anything back from them and then on May 31 I got a call from my agent to say they weren’t going to do it. From what I’ve been told, the manager was not too sure about it and that the Sporting Director Ross Wilson tried to convince him. Then they had him on board but then it was a constant back and forth, back and forth.
“At one point I thought it was going to go quite quickly because they told me ‘we want to keep you and we will find a solution blah blah blah.
“But then on the final day they said, ‘no, we can’t come to a conclusion and we think it’s better, if we can’t come to a 100 percent decision, that we let things end the way they are.’ It was a tough one to take, really.”
Leon Balogun remains a hugely popular figure amongst the Rangers fans and whilst it appears Giovanni van Bronckhorst let him go, the Nigerian will always be welcome back at the club.
Meanwhile, Rangers have been handed a South American transfer reality check.
