Ok, it’s ‘only women’s football’ we’ll hear some say, but when was the last time Rangers sold a star player to one of Europe’s elite clubs?
24-year-old Sam Kerr left Rangers Women for German giants Bayern Munich and while we’re not pretending the numbers in the women’s game are the same as the men’s, there’s no denying that our men couldn’t be further away from attracting a side like Bayern.
Indeed, some fans consider our best talent of last season to be Bayern’s own Malik Tillman, and just four years younger than Kerr; he will be very lucky to get anywhere near their reserve side never mind their first team.
But Kerr is a primo signing for Bayern women, and she’s pretty much going straight into their first team.
We know the competitive element, the pressure, the money in the women’s game is a different ball game to the men’s, but it shows how poorly Rangers’ men have been run for too long while our women’s side were winning their first title, winning cup finals and selling their best players to the biggest German side of them all.
As Kerr said:
“It’s Bayern Munich – it’s an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down.”
For avoidance of doubt, the only time any Rangers, or Celtic players have ever left either side straight for a giant of European football with a view to being a first-team player were Giovanni to Arsenal, Tierney to the same club, and, curiously, Wilson to Liverpool. Curiously, not a single case of these sales worked out – Gio was injured his whole time in London, Tierney started bright but lost his place to Zinchenko, and Wilson just wasn’t ready and didn’t develop well.
Some will argue Bassey to Ajax but they’re quite a distance below the heavy-hitters of Europe, even if their name remains significant. They deteriorated hugely when Ten Haag left. But he is one example of a sale to a big club who did indeed go into the first team. But would we call them elite? And like the other 3, he didn’t work out.
Kerr to Bayern shows further that Rangers can deliver quality players to big European sides, and that the women’s game within our club is doing well. Very well.
That the men’s side is going through a massive transition this summer says a lot. And before any arrogant timmies come in with a smug grin on, their squad is just as rotten. They buy rubbish from Asia, players who look great in Scotland but will drown anywhere else of a high calibre, and indeed did in the Champions League. No one from England or any big clubs is any more interested in their players than they are in ours.
Not like a Bayern (or even Ajax) anyway.
Well done to Rangers Women and good luck to Kerr in her new career. It really doesn’t get much bigger than Bayern.