Representatives of Chilean club Rangers de Talca have sent an open invite to Rangers fans to visit their club amid historic links between the two sides.
Both the city’s Mayor Juan Carlos Diaz and club president Felipe Munoz have sent a message to Rangers fans explaining that the Ibrox side have a “small brother” in Chile.
Rangers de Talca were founded by an exiled Scotsman 119 years ago and take their name from the Glasgow club, whilst their black and red colours are said to be, like Rangers’ black and red socks, representative of the borough of Govan.
“I would like to send a warm greeting to all the people of Glasgow Rangers football team and let you all know our sports team Rangers de Talca has its history and origins bounded to your football team,” said Juan Carlos Diaz [Blueheart 1872].
“Many of our founders were from Scotland and they cheered for Glasgow Rangers, your football team, so I invite you all to come and visit our city and our sports club.”
“We would also like to take time to invite you to come to our city, get to know our team and know that you have a small brother in Chile,” said Munoz [Blueheart 1872].
“For 120 years we have tried our very best to keep up the name of the institution to the highest possible.
“As I said before, you are very welcome to come and visit us in Talca whenever it is most convenient to you.”
Rangers de Talca send open invite to Rangers fans as delegation visits Ibrox
This comes as a Chilean delegation plan to travel to Ibrox this weekend for the match with Kilmarnock in a move that is being backed by former Chilean Ger Sebastian Rozenthal.
Rozenthal became the most expensive Chilean player in the world when he moved to Rangers for £4m from Universidad Catolica in 1998 [the Herald].
According to that same report, Rangers de Talca are hoping to strike up a commercial club partnership with the Gers, similar to those we have pre-existing with Indian club Bengaluru, German side HSV, and USA club Orange County.
This would give Rangers a presence in South America similar to that of Premier League Everton, who have an official relationship with fellow Chilean club Everton de Vina del Mar, who were founded in similar circumstances.
It’s an exciting prospect for supporters and we suspect there might be quite a few Rangers fans who take up the Rangers de Talca offer if they ever find themselves in Chile.
Meanwhile, Rangers fans have been left purring at a clip of an Ibrox wonderkid currently impressing in the club’s youth system.