Rangers are said to be looking at Levski Sofia’s talented 24-year-old midfielder Andrian Kraev, who has 8 caps for the Bulgarian national side.
Having never played a minute of club football outside his homeland, the £2M-rated defensive midfielder is in a position Rangers are looking for one or two bodies in, with Ryan Jack’s perennial injury issues, and John Lundstram’s contract situation, not to mention Nico Raskin’s underwhelming season thus far.
Only Dujon Sterling is ‘safe’ there and the club are said to be seeking one or two new men, with Kraev one such.
He has 109 appearances for Bulgaria’s largest club, Sofia, but has no experience for any club at any European competition of gravity, having made a curious 9 appearances in the Conference League qualifiers but never having made the group stage.
The lad can clearly play a bit, hence getting 8 caps for his country, and is yet another one who is out of contract in the summer, so would be another pre contract or minimal fee in January.
In truth, his CV is nothing remarkable, and all we could find on his qualities is this from well-respected Total Football Analysis:
“After the second half, Sarmov was taken off for Kraev who offered a lot more threat with his technical ability in the middle. Bulgaria switched to a 4-3-3 formation to create more attacking chances.”
This was Bulgaria v England in late 2019 and explained that Kraev has good technical quality and was able to support the attack better than Sarmov.
Which means we’re talking about a DM but who can push forward as well, not a lot unlike Lundstram and indeed Sterling, we’d imagine.
We’ll see if this is an interest the club pursues further.