Rangers have been placed ahead of both Juventus and Real Madrid in the International Federation of Football History and Statistics’ 2019 Global Club Rankings.
The Gers are 14th in the table which features a whopping 400 clubs.
The rankings are calculated based on results from the previous year, with each league and competition given a particular weighting.
Rangers may be yet to win a trophy under Steven Gerrard, but their strong domestic and European form over the first half of this season in particular, has stood them in good stead.
Remarkably, they have moved up 13 places since 2018 and sit three spots ahead of Italian champions Juventus and seven ahead of Spanish giants Real Madrid.
Atletico Mineiro sit one spot ahead of the Gers, while Gremio have been deemed slightly inferior and take up 15th spot.
The top three consists of Liverpool, Barcelona and Manchester City, with Celtic in fifth.
Verdict
These kinds of table carry more significance for some fans than others, but there’s no doubt it’s another indicator of major progression at Ibrox.
In the years immediately after the club’s financial troubles, the idea of being mentioned alongside the likes of Juve and Real would have been laughable.
However, while both of those teams would still very much fancy themselves in a game against the Gers, the club is very much back where it belongs on both the domestic and the European map.
Hopefully, if Steven Gerrard’s side kick on to claim the Premiership title at the end of this campaign, they will leapfrog a few more big teams and usurp Celtic as Scotland’s highest-ranked club by the end of 2020.
