Cyriel Dessers has chosen the most “beautiful” moment of his career to date as he reveals the real reason why he signed for Rangers.
The Belgian-born Nigeria international striker, 29, has had an up and down start to life at Rangers and in his first season at the club has blown hot and cold.
After a disastrous first few months, the striker has begun to settle with 13 of his 16 strikes this season coming since the appointment of Philippe Clement.
One of those includes a stunning strike in the table-topping 3-2 victory away to Real Betis and ahead of the Europa League clash with Benfica, Cyriel Dessers has been speaking to UEFA.
Cyriel Dessers in “beautiful” UEFA admission
The short interview clip makes mention of Cyriel Dessers’s run to the Europa Conference League Final with Feyenoord in the 21/22 season.
Whilst Rangers made the Europa League Final that season, the club’s lack of striker options cost them in a penalty-kicks defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in Seville.
Conversely, Cyriel Dessers and Feyenoord were defeated by AS Roma in Tirana despite the striker finishing the tournament’s top scorer with 10 goals.
Speaking to UEFA about that run, Cyriel Dessers has described a semi-final double against Ligue 1 giants Marseille as the most “beautiful game” of his career to date.
“The home leg against Marseille in the (Europa Conference League) semi-final when I scored two goals,” said Dessers.
“In hindsight those were the goals that got us to the final so this was probably the most beautiful game of my career until now.
“There are so many good football players in the world but how many of them can say ‘I played in a European Final?’
“And I became the top scorer as well so those are the things that I need to cherish and that make me very proud.”
Striker tells interview why he really joined Rangers
Whilst the European exploits of Cyriel Dessers would’ve certainly helped convince Rangers of moving for the forward, the striker himself had to be convinced to relocate to Ibrox.
Joining in the summer on a reported £4.5m deal from relegated Serie A side Cremonese, Dessers has revealed he joined the Gers with the “incentive to build something beautiful”.
”I was incredibly happy to sign here,” said Dessers. “With the incentive to build something beautiful.
“It was a really difficult start for us this season but you see that we turned it around the last months.
“Then you can see when this club is in full force then you really realise how big Rangers is and it’s massive. It’s unbelievable.”
After missing a host of chances in the weekend’s Scottish Premiership defeat to Motherwell, the big striker has come in for some substantial criticism.
With Rangers’ injury list increasing by the game, or at least certainly feeling like it, the onus will be on Cyriel Dessers to maintain the Ibrox side’s impressive recent Europa League form in Lisbon this week.
On such nights are Rangers legends made and let’s hope the big man can achieve his aims and help fire us to European glory.
A Europa League Final in Dublin at the end of a domestic treble-winning season? It doesn’t get much more beautiful than that.
