Youssef Chermiti has done something Rangers icon Kris Boyd only managed to do twice at the club – and he is still only 21 years old.
The Portuguese striker took the match ball home after netting a stunning hat-trick in the Light Blues’ 5-2 win over Falkirk in their season finale on Saturday.
Chermiti opened the scoring with a casual toe-poke inside two minutes, before an outrageous volley from 22 yards doubled his tally shortly after.
The Rangers striker completed his treble with a header two minutes into the second half, capping a remarkable individual display that lit up an otherwise irrelevant game for the visitors.
Would Rangers have won the league if they signed Lawrence Shankland instead of Youssef Chermiti?
Chermiti is first Premiership player since Lawrence Shankland to achieve incredible feat
Saturday’s treble was not Chermiti’s first of the season, as he netted thrice in Rangers’ 4-2 win against Hearts that saw them move within two points of the then league leaders.
That means the 21-year-old has now scored two hat-tricks in a single Premiership season, becoming the first to do so in the league since Lawrence Shankland in 2022-23.
Gavin Noon, who runs the Scotland’s Coefficient blog, noted on X that only three other players have achieved the feat for the Glaswegian outfit in this century.
Kenny Miller bagged two hat-tricks for the Gers in the league in the 2010-11 campaign, while Jermaine Defoe did it more recently in 2019-20.
Boyd is the other player in the list to achieve the feat as a Rangers star, but he stands out, as he did it twice – 2006-07 and 2008-09.
Chermiti could shine at Rangers next season
It has been a season of extremes for the centre-forward. Signed for £8million from Everton last summer, Chermiti arrived at Ibrox having failed to score in over two years, with serious questions hanging over the transfer.
The early weeks did little to silence the critics, but he has since appeared to have found his footing in Scottish football.
His breakthrough moment came in January, when he scored twice at Celtic Park as Rangers overturned a 13-point deficit to draw level with their rivals.
Having also bagged two hat-tricks since the turn of the year, Chermiti ended the season with 15 goals in 41 appearances for the Govan club.
With the Light Blues entering what looks like another significant rebuild this summer, the striker will be central to whatever comes next at Ibrox.
He is under contract, still only 21, and has now shown he can deliver at the highest level on Scottish football’s biggest stages.
If Andrew Cavenagh and Co. can build a team capable of sustaining a title challenge around him, there is every reason to believe the hat-tricks will keep coming.
