THE ONE’S THAT GOT AWAY: PART 3
Every club has them. The transfers that got away, the kind of ones you think back now and ask, how did we not get the deal over the line.
In this series I have picked out a few, some of them,we will be happy to have missed out on, others and for the most part will leave you wishing, and thinking only what if.
PLAYER IN QUESTION : MARIO JARDEL
DATE OF INTEREST: 1996,1997,2001,2003
No series on the ones that got away would be complete without, Jardel to us. On no fewer than FOUR occasions did we come close to signing him , but none quite as close as on the first attempt.
Fans of a certain age will remember seeing Jardel paraded before a match with Raith Rovers at Ibrox, in full Rangers training gear and complete with his wife. Only for the deal to collapse due to strict rules on non-EU players.
Jardel was a scoring phenomenon, a goal machine in his homeland, first with Vasco da Gama, and then with Gremio, winning the Copa Libertadores in 1995, netting a superb return of 67 goals in just 73 games.
Rangers failure to secure the deal was Porto’s gain and Jardel, further enhanced his reputation as one of the world’s best strikers, in his time there and also at Galatasaray, followed by a return to Portugal with Sporting.
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By the time Jardel eventually reached these shores with Bolton, he was a shadow of himself looking largely overweight and disinterested, but this one was so close and you have to wonder just how different European fixtures might have been with Jardel in his prime, in the light blue of Rangers and not Porto.
Tell me your thoughts, would Europe have been different with Jardel in our ranks.
Steven Harrigan
@steven_harrigan
@rangersnewsuk