Nicolas Raskin has revealed the European perception of who Rangers’ ‘best’ or ‘most famous’ player is, and the results might surprise you.
It wasn’t Calvin Bassey, it wasn’t Alfredo Morelos, it wasn’t even Joe Aribo – Rangers’ stand-out man in the eyes of the young Belgian, the one he saw much more in the eyes of the media and profile, was in fact star winger Ryan Kent.
Yes indeed, not that surprising when we dig deep, if maybe surprising on the surface because of how lowly some fans want to rate the boy these days and reject past performances because it suits, but he’s the most prominent one.
Why? Borussia Dortmund. Over two legs, Ryan Kent obliterated the German giant in Rangers’ play-off round to get to the last 16 of the Europa League, playing a famously brilliant couple of legs, outshining now-England star Jude Bellingham.
He must have believed big teams would make a move for him, or that an England call-up was possible from that, but as it turned out, it was Bellingham who became the England star, purely because he plays in Germany.
Kent began to realise he would never make it for England if he remained at Ibrox, but nevertheless, those matches at Dortmund and Ibrox caught Europe’s attention big time, and made Kent a significant player.
Raskin was one witness:
“Honestly, he is the only guy [here] I knew when I was a young kid. He was famous in Europe as well. I’m enjoying playing with him a lot. He’s so good. When he’s got the ball at his feet, it’s almost unbelievable and impossible to take the ball off him. It’s hard to play against him in training but it’s very good to play with him. I watched Rangers last season on their European run. Everyone watched the team last season. He was the famous image of Rangers in Europe. I want him to stay here so I can play with him for a long time. I think he is very important for the team. If we want to achieve something we need to keep all of our best players — and he’s the best player. We need him here. Honestly I don’t know why, but he was the only guy I knew. I know the Borussia Dortmund game but whenever I talked about Rangers I talked about this Ryan Kent.”
There’s no denying Kent gets a very unfair press, particularly in the months after Sevilla – his miss in the final did break the hearts of so many fans, and we can help feel the brown stuff stuck after that, but there’s no denying when he’s on form and in the zone, he’s an exceptional player that not even Dortmund can handle.
Raskin is very much from the heart, he’s an honest soul – and if he says something he means it. Kent has enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in some fans’ eyes since Beale took charge, but he still gets a lot of stick.
But the rest of Europe doesn’t seem to agree when it comes to Kenty.