After Nigerian striker Cyriel Dessers struggled at the beginning of the season with Glasgow Rangers, but now he's starting to prove himself after the club showed faith in him by signing him from Cremonese in Italy last summer.
Despite a poor 2022/23 season with the Italian club, where he scored only 10 goals in 32 games across all competitions, the Gers paid £4.5m to relegated Cremonese to part ways with the striker.
After joining Rangers, the striker continued to struggle and faced criticism from home fans.
In his first 20 games for Rangers, the 29-year-old only scored three times, which led to him being left out of the Super Eagles squad at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
However, since the beginning of the year, the Belgian-Nigerian has been in excellent form and is currently among the top performers in Europe.
Since December, Dessers has scored 13 goals and assisted seven times in 27 appearances across all competitions.
On Sunday, the former Feyenoord striker continued his impressive form with two goals as Rangers defeated Hearts 2-0 in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup, setting up an exciting final against eternal rivals Celtic United.
After receiving the sponsor’s Man of The Match award on Sunday, Dessers, who has now scored a total of 20 goals for club and country in the 2023/24 campaign, admitted that he’s happy to be scoring again.
“At the start, I think it got to me,” he said.
“I’m really happy with the goals. That was a beautiful day to do that in front of our fans at Hampden; that was special. Today (Sunday) I could have played better. When you score two goals in a semi-final, you have to be happy with that, but we want more.”
Dessers has often been criticized for the chances he misses rather than the ones he takes, and many of the club’s fans have questioned the management’s decision not to sign a prolific striker during the January transfer window despite being linked with Lawrence Shankland.
However, Dessers does not seem to be affected by the boos or criticisms from the stands or in the media.
“I don’t know what the talk outside our training ground was,” he said.
“Inside, we were pretty calm and composed. We didn’t lose confidence because we have shown for months what we can do as a team. We just have to find that rhythm.
“It’s important to close out the noise. But after a few months, or for a few guys a couple of years, we have the experience of that. You have to stay focused, in these weeks you have to block out the noise.
“That’s something I learned from as well. Now I have everything in line, in my head as well. When there’s noise now I can shut it out and I think that’s what we all need to do over the next few weeks.”
He added, “It’s not been easy, it’s not the first time this season either. But after a difficult week or result, we always bounced back and we did so again against Hearts.
“Obviously, all eyes in the country were on us and what we were going to do after the last two results. But if you can show this character, at Hampden, in a semi-final, against a good team then I think that says a lot about this team.”
With six matches remaining – five in the league and the cup – the striker is very confident, and says that the team can aim for winning both competitions.
“We have six more games and a lot to compete for. A new league starts next weekend and we know what we need to do to become champions. Hopefully, we can do that on the field.
“The pressure is building after the week we had. To perform well in crucial moments today against a strong team, I believe we are pleased with the performance and result. We can look ahead with confidence to the upcoming games. I desire more goals, more victories, and hopefully, more trophies.
“If you consider the recent months, we have demonstrated our abilities. It's just a matter of rediscovering that form. If we can regain that momentum, I believe we are the top team in the league.
With his 27-goal contribution (19 goals and eight assists) this season, Dessers is among the most productive strikers the club has had in the last 20 seasons.
Excluding their time in the lower leagues, his total is only surpassed by the single-season numbers of Alfredo Morelos, Kenny Miller, Kris Boyd, Nacho Novo, and Dado Prso over the past two decades.
With six games remaining, he has already scored more goals than Antonio Colak, Kemar Roofe, and Jermain Defoe ever did in one season for the Gers.
Over the past 20 years, he has scored more goals than Daniel Cousins and Jean-Claude Darcheville, Peter Lovenkrands, Shota Arveladze, Michael Mols, and many other Rangers strikers during that time.
