His stay at Scottish Premiership giants Rangers may have been short, but those Ibrox memories will live for a very long time.
Few players have enjoyed careers quite as nomadic as his.
From starting out in Germany with Karlsruher over a decade ago, Antonio Colak is now earning a living in Italy with Spezia. In between, sit spells of varying success in Poland, Croatia, Greece, Sweden and, of course Scotland.
Colak’s impressive goals per game record in the blue shirt means that single-season stay at Rangers stands out as one of the more successful stops on his globe-trotting journey.
The Croatia international scored 18 goals across all competitions, only departing because Mick Beale – hardly a popular name at Ibrox these days – wanted a centre-forward capable of offering more of a presence outside of the penalty box.
Hence the departure of Colak – a natural-born poacher – and the subsequent arrival of the inconsistent but indefatigable Cyriel Dessers.
Antonio Colak makes Real Madrid comparison about Rangers
For Colak, Rangers sold him to Parma for a reported £1.7 million a year-and-a-half ago, the thing that really sticks in his mind when looking back on his Glasgow spell was the fearsome, feverish atmosphere of their iconic Ibrox home.
It left the now-31-year-old striker wondering – as the anticipation built ahead of those Champions League encounters – if this is what it felt like walking out onto the hallowed Santiago Bernabeu turf in the white of Real Madrid.
“Every country has its own culture,” Colak tells La Nazione. “The first time I went outside of Germany was at [the age of] 21. In Gdansk, in Poland, I felt like an adult. I became mentally strong.
“In 2018, I moved to Croatia, to Rijeka. There, everything was easier because I felt at home. I had a great performance with 51 goals in 90 games, winning the top scorer title. In Greece, at Paok, it was the time of Covid. It was difficult for me, also because of my mother’s illness.
“In Sweden, at Malmo, I returned to scoring many goals; 22 in 40 games with the qualification for the Champions League.
“In 2022, [I had] the experience with the legendary Glasgow Rangers. [It felt] like being a soldier at Real Madrid. A spectacle to play in the Champions League at the Ibrox Stadium packed with 50,000 fans.”
Colak struggling for goals since joining Serie A side Parma
Unfortunately for Colak, and particularly for Giovanni van Bronckhorst given that the Dutchman would pay with his job, Rangers’ Champions League campaign back in 2022/23 is best left forgotten.
Despite reaching the Europa League final only a few months earlier, Rangers became statistically the worst team ever to take part in the continent’s elite club competition. Van Bronckhorst’s side lost all six games, conceding 22 goals, while Colak did not hit the target even once.
Still, his memories remain fond.
Antonio Colak finds goals far harder to come by in Italy than he did in Scotland, meanwhile. He was let go by Spezia over the summer, hitting the net only three times during their promotion to Serie A. He scored only three times in the second tier and has just one to show for his efforts at Parma.
