Rangers loanee Malik Tillman picks up the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year Award, becoming the first Ibrox star since Ryan Kent in 2019 to collect the gong.
The USA international is on loan at the Gers from Bayern Munich, with his 12 goals for the club this season an impressive return in what is the attacking midfielder’s first full campaign as a professional.
Undoubtedly the award was merited – as voted for by his fellow professionals – and maybe it will have Malik Tillman thinking twice about turning down a summer move to Rangers.
The Gers have an exclusive £5m option-to-buy on the 20-year-old, who has returned to parent club Bayern after sustaining a season-ending injury in the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic.
Shades of Ryan Kent in Malik Tillman Rangers award
Interestingly, the similarities between Tillman and Ryan Kent don’t begin and end with the award, as the Ibrox winger prepares to exit the club permanently in the summer.
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Kent reportedly has no shortage of suitors as things stand and is increasingly expected to leave Rangers for nothing after the club splashed out £7m to sign him permanently from Liverpool in 2019.
This was after an initially successful loan spell at the club which heralded the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award.
On top of that, Jurgen Klopp opted to run the rule over Kent in a Liverpool pre-season before sanctioning the Rangers switch and Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel is set to do the same with Tillman.
This means any Tillman move, like that involving Kent, could span the length of the transfer window, with the player’s future firmly up in the air as things stand.
While Tillman has been a rare bright spark in a season devoid of them – as the player’s award suggests – it’s been a tough campaign in Glasgow and even the Bayern talent hasn’t been immune from criticism.
It is a difficult place to play when things aren’t going well and perhaps the stature of Scottish football and pressure involved at Rangers could prove too big a turn off for one of German football’s brightest talents.