Gary Neville has praised Ibrox Stadium as one of the top two stadiums outside of England he played in as a player.
In a Twitter Q&A he described Galatasaray’s Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi/Türk Telekom Stadium and Rangers’ Ibrox as the two loudest he’s played at.
https://twitter.com/GNev2/status/1058020781802823680
It’s also not the first time Gary Neville has praised the Rangers support. Neville was at Ibrox in 2003 as Manchester United ran out 1-0 winners. He famously said United were lucky Rangers didn’t score.
Speaking after that game Neville said:
“This was the loudest atmosphere that I have known, compared to any English ground away from home.
“There have been certain nights at Old Trafford in European games – the ones against Juventus comes to mind – when the atmosphere was incredible.
“But this was definitely up there with the best. It was fantastic. When we came out at the start I was looking around me and I saw people in the directors’ box jumping up singing and I was wondering what was happening. It is not usually like that.
“The crowd beating us was never going to happen – but thank goodness they didn’t score.”
Neville not the only one
It’s not the first time a top-level ex-footballer has praised Rangers’ home ground this season. Italian legend Gigi Buffon named Ibrox as one of the top three stadiums he played in as a player.
He named the famous ground alongside Liverpool’s Anfield and interestingly, Fenerbahçe’s Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium. Buffon played Rangers at Ibrox with Parma twice in the late nineties.
And both Man U legend Neville and Juventus hero Buffon should know. They’ve played at almost all of the biggest grounds around the continent in sterling footballing careers.
This season has saw the return of big European nights at Ibrox.
And the crowds have been just as raucous as they were when Neville and Buffon visited.
