Rangers have increasingly looked towards South America as a hotbed of potential player trading talent.
The Ibrox side have big hopes for Colombian winger Oscar Cortes, should the 20-year-old ever be fit enough to take to the pitch in Glasgow.
Rangers’ Brazilian duo Jefte and Danilo are also making an impact with the latter another whose injury record is enough to make Michael Ball blush.
But there’s another South American Ranger still on the Glasgow club’s books who has been making headlines abroad and who is the subject of faint hopes of an Ibrox reprieve.
Aris hope to renegotiate Jose Cifuentes deal
Jose Cifuentes didn’t settle in Scotland after a late summer move to Rangers last year.
The Ecuadorean international midfielder, who is still only 25-years-old, swapped the palm trees of Los Angeles for the cold of the River Clyde and never really stood a chance.
After being farmed out on loan to Cruzeiro in Brazil, Cifuentes is back in Europe with Aris Thessaloniki and is making a big impression in Greece.
So much so that there are as of yet unconfirmed murmurs about the Greek side hoping to renegotiate the reported £4.2m option-to-buy clause in the midfielder’s contract.
The likes of the National are citing unnamed sources in Greece as having reported that Aris have contacted Rangers in the hope of restructuring the deal.
It comes with Cifuentes making 13 appearances for Aris in the Greek Super League this season, with the division’s upstarts vying for a place in Europe next season after a bright start to the season.
Rangers loanee unlikely to return to Ibrox
Talk of Jose Cifuentes turning up trees in Greece has obviously turned heads at Rangers, with fans wondering if the midfielder might make a shock return to the do the business in Glasgow.
But the fresh appearance of Jose in the press comes just weeks after a sensational return to Rangers appeared to be ruled out in the Scottish media.
The Rangers Review and Chris Jack claimed that Aris do have an option-to-buy in the Cifuentes loan deal but did not go into details with regards its value.
Reports at the time of the deal suggested Aris would have to pay £4.2m to make the deal permanent.
But what the report did state is that in all likelihood, ‘Cifu has kicked his last ball for Rangers’.
And whilst there’s talk of Aris hoping to renegotiate the option on the loan, the report adds that Cifuentes ‘may well come to the attention of other interested parties’.
It suggests Jose Cifuentes will not be short of suitors and whilst the midfielder is impressing in Greece, a return to Rangers feels like a long shot.
