Nicolas Raskin is having quite the season at Rangers even as the Ibrox club toil domestically.
After two-and-a-half years in Glasgow, Nicolas Raskin has finally come into his own this campaign and has been a terrier-like presence at the heart of the Rangers midfield.
An energetic, aggressive player who has broken up opposition attacks and proven the springboard for forays into opposition territory, it’s easy to see now why Raskin was compared to Rino Gattuso after moving to Ibrox.
Nico was rewarded for his good form this season with a maiden call-up to the Belgium national team where Raskin impressed against Ukraine in his first start for the Red Devils.
But whilst international notoriety is obviously very welcome, Raskin admits one moment in Rangers blue from this season will stick with him for life.
Nicolas Raskin will never forget Rangers moment v Celtic
Nicolas Raskin pipped Celtic’s Arne Engels for a place in the Belgium squad during the last international break.
And as if to add insult to injury, the Rangers midfielder would open the scoring in a now legendary Old Firm victory at Celtic Park.
Rising highest to flick the ball into the far corner of the net from James Tavernier’s set-piece delivery, it’s a moment the Belgian insists he will never forget.
“Here, given that I’m small, or at least not the tallest, they never wanted to let me come up for a corner,” Raskin explained to Belgian outlet RTBF. “I fought with the staff to get permission to head it.
“That day, the ball came perfectly, I jumped at the near post and put it in. It’s one of those moments where it’s difficult to contain your emotions. When you’re at the enemy’s, it’s even better because you can hear the stadium calm down. You can just hear your fans. Those are memories you’ll keep for life.”
Nicolas Raskin confirms plans to move to ‘favourite club’
Whilst Rangers have found a place in Nicolas Raskin’s heart, the Belgian midfielder will never forget his roots at Standard Liege.
Standard are the 24-year-old’s hometown team and the club which is closest to his heart and it’s perhaps for that reason that the midfielder wound up moving to Ibrox.
Whilst the likes of Barcelona and Napoli were said to be tailing Raskin, Rangers made their move in January 2023 and the rest as they say is history.
But at the same time there were a number of Belgian Pro League clubs sniffing around – most notably Club Brugge – and Nico claims he turned them all down so he could one day return to Les Rouches.
”Standard will remain my favourite club no matter what,” Raskin explained. “It’s simple: last Sunday I was at home, I had the choice between several matches and I watched Les Rouches away to Dender.
“I still have that connection, I still have a lot of contact with the players. It’s a club I want to come back to.
”When I left, I turned down several clubs in Belgium because I wanted to come back to Standard and not anywhere else.”
