Jermain Defoe’s time at Rangers might’ve been brief but the legendary former Premier League striker leaves a sizeable legacy.
Rangers fans will forever have a positive impression of Defoe, who lifted his one and only league championship in the famous Royal Blue.
But it’s not just on the pitch that Jermain Defoe left a legacy at Ibrox, with the former Rangers striker also having a big impact on the players coming through at academy level.
Now, one youngster Defoe once branded his ‘little bro’ insists he’s got his eye on a return to Rangers after signing a deal in the Scottish Championship.
Dapo Mebude ‘dreams of Rangers return’
Dapo Mebude came through the youth ranks at Rangers and even made the breakthrough for the club in a 2019 defeat to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
But with chances limited at Ibrox, the young striker took the plunge with a move to Watford in 2021 and since then Dapo’s career has been laden with pitfalls.
With injury devastating the now 23-year-old’s start to life in England, a move to Belgium looked to restart his career before Mebude barely survived a terrifying car crash last year.
Now rebuilding once again, Dapo Mebude has signed a deal with Dunfermline in the Scottish Championship.
But it’s Rangers the youngster has his eye on, with Mebude insisting he has unfinished business at Ibrox and that one day he sincerely hopes to return.
“I’m just looking forward to the future,” Mebude told the Daily Record. “I want to repay the faith Dunfermline has put in me.
“I owe the manager a lot. He and his coaching staff spoke to me a lot. What they’ve done for me at the club is really nice on a personal level.
“I feel really privileged and blessed to be able to play football again.
“Sometimes you forget and days just pass you by and you just play because it’s your job, it’s what you’re used to.
“But that time gave me some reflection and made me realise how lucky we are to do our jobs. I want to play for Rangers again one day. I would love to play at Ibrox.
“I made my debut when I was a young boy and then decided to take a different route.
“If it’s meant to be it will be. It would be great to play for Rangers again and that’s the dream, scoring goals for Rangers.”
Jermain Defoe’s ‘little bro’ explains Ibrox exit
It’s not the first time Dapo Mebude has said he wants to return to Rangers.
It might lead some to asking why the young striker ever moved on from Ibrox, with Dapo in and around the first-team before his exit in 2021.
An understudy of Jermain Defoe at Ibrox, the legendary England forward predicted that he’d be watching his ‘little bro’ scoring goals long after he’d retired from playing.
But so far it’s a prediction that has not come to fruition.
Speaking about competition from the likes of Jermain Defoe and Alfredo Morelos, Mebude has also touched on why he quit Rangers to begin with.
The striker claims that he has ‘no regrets’ about how his career has gone and insists that he’s fully focused on performing with Dunfermline so he can earn that return to Ibrox.
“I try not to live life with regrets,” said Mebude. “I left Rangers because I thought it was the best thing to do.
“There were two really good strikers in front of me. Alfredo Morelos was the main man and there was Jermain Defoe too.
“It was hard to see where the opportunity would come because I was knocking on the door for quite a while.
“I trained well and got my debut. But it’s a tough ask as a teenager to take the jersey off Alfredo or Jermain.
“But everything that’s happened in my career has led me to a point where I feel mature and happy in myself. You should always trust in your journey.
“Right now my best intentions and focus are on Dunfermline. So let’s take care of the here and now and then in the future we will see what happens.”
