Rangers are set to face one of the brightest talents emerging from South America when they come up against Benfica in their Europa League group stage battles.
The Portuguese giants almost certainly represent the biggest challenge in a group also containing Belgian side Standard Liege and Polish club Lech Poznan.
But after Rangers dumped last season’s Primeira Liga champions Porto and Portuguese rivals Braga in last season’s competition, fans will be confident.
However, Benfica have went through a massive summer of recruitment, splashing out a whopping £88.65m [Transfermarkt] to bring in nine new bodies.
Amongst them include Nicolas Otamendi from Man City, Jan Vertonghen from Tottenham and £21m signing Darwin Nunez from Almeria.
Indeed, these new signings have helped Benfica to a perfect start this season with their three wins and 10 goals firing them to the top of the Portuguese top tier.
But the most exciting signing of all comes in the shape of Everton Soares, the 24-year-old former Gremio winger who has already established himself as a Brazilian international.
For whatever reason, no European club has taken the plunge on the tricky wide man until now and Jorge Jesus’ side beat off a host of competition to sign the player for a reported £18m (€20m).
The player signed a contract until 2025, will wear the number 7 shirt, and has a buyout clause of £137m (€150m) [Benfica].
The winger has 14 caps and three goals for Brazil, each of them coming at the Copa America in 2019 and being enough to earn him the competition’s Golden Boot.
One of those came in the 3-1 Final victory over Peru, where this talented forward player was named the Man of the Match.
Playing in European competition is always a great chance to see some of the world’s best talent on display, and in South American terms there’s arguably none more emerging than Everton Soares.
Rangers fans have been expressing their excitement over the Europa League group stage draw after the Gers made the competition proper for the third year on the bounce.
