Say what you want about Cyriel Dessers – and sections of the Rangers support usually don’t need asking twice – but the striker’s record in Scottish football makes for pretty impressive reading.
Since moving to Ibrox from Cremonese in a £4.5 million deal, the Belgian-born Nigeria international has scored 40 goals in around a season-and-a-half’s worth of football. Forty goals in 91 games, to be precise.
His tally of 16 in the Premiership last term was more than Alfredo Morelos – a centre-forward held in far greater esteem by the Rangers majority – managed in five of his six campaigns.
Cyriel Dessers has more stand-out European moments, meanwhile, than most in the club’s recent history too.
Bruno Fernandes’ stoppage time winner may have scrubbed much of the sheen of his Old Trafford wondergoal – Ally McCoist was blown away by Cyriel Dessers’ ‘sensational’ finish in that heartbreaking defeat by Manchester United – but the battling frontman was exceptional as Rangers secured their place in the last-16, one year after his stunning solo effort in that historic win at Real Betis also ensured knockout football in the spring.
Furthermore, Dessers’ returns far outweigh Antonio Colak since the summer of 2023.
The well-travelled Croatian has scored just four times in Italy while Dessers, who’s arrival played a major role in Colak’s departure from Ibrox, has hit the net ten times more often in the same period.
It is not just Rangers strikers of the past, however, but also Rangers strikers of an alternative present who pale in comparison.
Cyriel Dessers outscores reported Rangers target Iqraam Rayners
Rangers reportedly identified Iqraam Rayners as a potential replacement for Cyriel Dessers should the Ibrox number nine have put pen to paper with one of his admirers in Italy or Spain before last Monday’s transfer deadline.
Thank the lord he didn’t.
Because, while Dessers has hit the net six times in the last month alone, Rayners has not found the target once in 2025. A flying start to life at South African giants Mamelodi Sundowns has given way to a sudden slump.
Since taking his tally to 13 goals in 17 matches with a Christmas Eve winner over AmaZulu FC, the late-blooming centre-forward has none in eight.
What’s more, since he was hauled off at half-time during a 2-1 home defeat to Magesi, Rayners has started only two of the following four matches.
It’s been quite the drop-off for a player who picked up the South African league’s Player of the Month award only a few weeks ago, Iqraam Rayners beating the similarly Rangers-linked Relebohile Mofokeng of Orlando Pirates to the gong.
Rangers reportedly offered £2.4 million for South Africa striker
According to sources close to the Sundowns, via Soccer Laduma, Rangers made an ‘offer’ of around £2.4 million for Rayners during the January transfer window. Around the same time that Rangers opened preliminary talks about selling Cyriel Dessers.
“It is true the offer is there, and it is around 55 million [South African] Rand,” that source says.
“It doesn’t mean that the offer Rangers have tabled is the final one. Any deal remains in the hands of the Sundowns as they have the final say. But, as things stand now, they are not ready to let their top striker go just after signing him.”
A few weeks and eight goalless appearances later, one wonders if the Sundowns, knowing what they know now, would instead have opted to strike while the iron – not to mention Rayners’ scoring streak – was at it’s hottest.
As for Rangers, well the fact that Dessers has outscored Rayners by six goals to nil since those rumours emerged speaks for itself.
