By Alistair Aird

When the news broke on Monday evening that Cyriel Dessers had left Rangers to join Panathinaikos, my immediate reaction was one of disappointment. The man who has just vacated the coveted number nine jersey sparked numerous debates during his two-season stint at Ibrox, but whilst he was far from flawless, in my opinion, Dessers should be remembered fondly when we reflect on a spell that yielded 52 goals in 116 appearances. But while trying to define Dessers and his time as a Rangers player, does the data from the clubs he played for before joining Rangers provide evidence that he is indeed an enigma?

You have to go back to season 2013/14 to find the first time the name ‘Dessers’ appeared on a teamsheet. While also studying law at KU Leuven university, Dessers was playing a starring role for Oud-Heverlee Leuven’s U19 and reserve teams. By March 2014, he had netted 21 goals in 21 matches for the reserves and he was promoted to the first team to try and help them stave off the threat of relegation. Dessers would make two appearances, replacing Evariste Ngolok 13 minutes from the end of a 3-2 defeat against RAEC Mons and Bjorn Ruytinx with quarter of an hour to go in the 2-1 home win over KAS Eupen.

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OH didn’t stay up and Dessers departed at the end of the season, signing a two-year deal with Lokeren. He would net a hat trick against KVC Winkel Sport in September 2014, and although he failed to score in 15 league appearances, Dessers made a name for himself in the Europa League play-offs. Dessers netted four goals in six appearances, but Lokeren were beaten 4-3 on aggregate by Mechelen in the final.

No goals were forthcoming in the 11 appearances Dessers made in 2015/16 – in fairness, his total minutes played stood at 224 – and he joined NAC Breda in the summer. And it was during his time in Holland that the Dessers star first started to shine. The Nigerian would score 22 goals in 36 appearances in the Juliper League – the second tier in Holland – and seven in four in the promotion play-offs. Included in his haul was a hat trick in a 4-1 win over NEC Nijmegen.

Although Breda gained promotion, Dessers moved to FC Utrecht in July 2017 where he managed to score 19 goals in 56 appearances. He did miss a chunk of season 2018/19, though, after tearing knee ligaments.

The goals flowed for Dessers again when he signed for Heracles. In a season that would be curtailed by COVID, Dessers scored 15 league goals, including a hat trick against VVV-Venlo and the winner against Ajax in February 2020. That marked him out as the top goalscorer in the Eredivise, an accolade he shared with Steven Berghuis.

Season 2020/21 would see Dessers win his first cap for Nigeria. Although born in Belgium, his mother was Nigerian and his debut ended in a 1-1 draw against Tunisia. To date, he has won eight caps, scoring three goals.

By the time Dessers had won that first cap, he was plying his trade back in Belgium with Genk. But Dessers would score only four goals in 28 league appearances, and although he scored three times in the play-offs – included were goals against Anderlecht and Club Brugge – the Nigerian was loaned to Feyenoord at the end of August 2021.

Holland seemed to bring the best out of Dessers once again. Although he only scored nine goals in 27 league appearances, his 10 goals in 13 Europa Conference League fixtures made him the top goalscorer in the competition.

Feyenoord didn’t exercise the option to purchase Dessers when his loan spell ended so he ended up in Serie A when he signed for Cremonese. Seven goals in 29 appearances followed, Dessers missing the last six league games with an issue with his patellar tendon.

The above therefore gives a flavour of what Rangers were getting when Michael Beale made his move in the summer of 2023. For circa £3,500,000, Rangers seemed to be getting a centre forward who could be lethal on his day but could also be profligate and post a poor scoring return.

Dessers made his debut in the 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock on the opening day of the season and failed to score – and indeed complete 90 minutes – in his first four league appearances. His first goal for the club came from the penalty spot at home to Morton in the League Cup, with his first league goal coming against Motherwell in September. But he had lacked conviction. Perhaps Dessers was still feeling the effects of the injury that had prematurely ended his previous season, but the Rangers fans weren’t convinced that Dessers was good enough to lead the line. And when it started to turn sour for Beale after losing to Celtic and exiting the Champions League after being thrashed by PSV Eindhoven, Dessers was one upon whom the ire of the supporters was focused. It would all come to a head one soggy September afternoon.

Rangers faced Aberdeen at Ibrox having won three and lost two of their opening five league games. There was toxicity in the air. Supporters were disgruntled and disillusioned. Michael Beale was on the cusp of being dismissed.

Dessers was the central striker just like he had been in four of the opening five games. But he struggled to make an impression once again and his substitution after 84 minutes saw him roundly jeered by the home supporters. When the straits are dire rather than broad and narrow, a scapegoat is sought, and Dessers was cast in the role. It would be the nadir of his time at Rangers.

In situations such as those, the character and mentality of a player is tested. Dessers could have folded and sought an escape route. But he didn’t. After Beale was dismissed, he played 90 minutes in the dire 2-1 loss against Aris Limassol and then came off the bench as Steven Davis’s spell as caretaker manager ended with a 3-0 win over St Mirren in Paisley.

No goals were forthcoming, but the arrival of Phillipe Clement was reinvigorate Dessers. His Rangers career had seemingly nosedived but the Super Eagle would soon soar. Dessers netted in Clement’s first league match in charge – a 4-0 win over Hibernian – and did likewise in away wins over Dundee and Livingston.

December would bring two goals and two assists. Dessers was proving he could be potent and profligate in equal measure – hence why he generated so much debate among the fanbase – but by the end of the season, he had registered 22 goals and nine assists in 54 appearances. In those 54 appearances, Dessers had been subbed on 13 times and subbed off on 33 occasions. His total minutes played stood at 3,422 which gave a goal return of one every 156 minutes. As much maligned as he was at this stage, those are impressive numbers for a centre forward. Admittedly, he was a little too fond of getting caught offside and was guilty of having a heavy first touch at times, but there was no faulting his work ethic or endeavour.

Season 2024/25 opened with three goals in the opening three league games and what looked like a crucial goal against Dynamo Kyiv in a Champions League qualifier. Dessers also scored four goals to help Rangers reach the final of the League Cup. But by the time Rangers faced Celtic at Hampden, he was in the midst of another barren spell. After scoring twice against Ross County at the end of August, Dessers wouldn’t net again until November. But had we known how his pre-Rangers career had gone, this wouldn’t have been a surprise. More often than not, he would score in spurts then go on a run of games without goals.

Dessers would end this particular lean spell with three crucial goals inside a week. He netted the equaliser in a 2-1 win over Motherwell in the semis of the League Cup, did likewise against Olympiacos in the Europa League before grabbing the only goal of the game in the league against Hearts at Ibrox.

After the Hearts game, I wrote a piece called ‘Defining Dessers’. I did so because we were all struggling to work the guy out and determine what his value was to the team. He had a record that was comparable to the more lauded Kyogo Furahasi, yet he always seemed to be fixed in the crosshairs when folk were looking for someone to apportion blame to when things were going awry. And he would be at his enigmatic best as 2024 reached a conclusion.

That run of three goals in seven days was followed by another relatively fallow spell. Dessers would score just twice in the league in December, both goals coming in a 6-0 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox. Admittedly, he was used sparingly, starting only one of the six Premiership fixtures. His total minutes played came to just 85.

Danilo and Hamza Igamane seemed to have sneaked ahead of Dessers in the pecking order for the central striking role. The Moroccan would start the League Cup Final and the Brazilian would be pitched in from the bench first. Dessers eventually replaced Igamane in the first period of extra time, but perhaps short of confidence, he wasn’t among the first five Rangers penalty takers when the match went to a shoot out. Given his excellent penalty record – 13 scored from the 17 he had taken – this perhaps summed up where Dessers was at the time. Rather than relish the opportunity to become a hero, he decided instead that he didn’t want to remain the villain.

But out of nowhere, the Nigerian came back with a bang. In January, he came off the bench to score against Aberdeen at Ibrox and he scored a stunning equaliser against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He lashed in another beauty with his left foot at Tannadice too. The latter would be just his eighth league goal of the season.

Confidence brimming once again, Dessers would start all but two of the 14 league games that remained after the trip to Tayside. He added 10 goals to his tally or league goals in that spell, netting in each of the five post-split matches. That included a smartly taken goal against Celtic at Ibrox. He led the line superbly in Europe too, scoring one and assisting another against Fenerbache in Istanbul and being controversially denied a penalty kick in Bilbao.

All in, Dessers had scored 29 goals in 55 appearances. He had started just 38 of those matches. With his minutes played coming in at 3,423, that equated to a goal every 118 minutes. Fingers could be pointed as much as they had been, but those are impressive numbers. As the man himself said towards the end of the season, if you had offered the Rangers supporters that kind of return when he signed, you would have been delighted.

That glut of goals towards the end of season 2024/25 convinced the supporters that Dessers had a part to play in a Rangers squad that was going to be reshaped and redeveloped by Russell Martin. Maybe he wouldn’t be the first pick at centre forward, but his goal ratio suggested he would remain a valuable asset. Twas not to be though.

Rumours of a move to Greece surfaced fairly early. Indeed, at one point Martin admitted that the only bid submitted for a Rangers player since the window opened was an offer for the services of Dessers. But after overcoming injury, Dessers was back in contention, scoring a vital penalty kick against Viktoria Plzen. And with Danilo well below par, Igamane also not up to speed and no centre forward in the initial influx of new players, Dessers looked like being the main marksman. But a knee injury sustained in Plzen meant that Dessers would play just 18 more minutes in a Rangers jersey, coming off the bench to replace Bojan Miovski in the drab and dire 0-0 draw against Celtic.

Within 24 hours, he was gone. Pastures new would be Panathinkaikos.

In an era where ‘undisclosed fee’ is the norm when players are transferred, no one knows for certain what the fee was for Dessers. But if the figures of between £3,000,000 and £4,000,000 are accurate, then this has been a good deal from a business perspective. Dessers will be 31 in December and it looks like Rangers have almost got a complete return on their initial investment.

But does the deal make good sense from a football perspective? I don’t think it does. I’m not advocating that Dessers has the qualities to be our principal sharpshooter – the data above backs that, he’s too inconsistent – but his goal ratio and selflessness when it comes to doing the hard yards merited retaining him as a valuable asset in the squad. Maybe Martin wanted that and Cyriel wanted assurances that he would play more often not. Other than those two and perhaps Kevin Thelwell, no one knows the answer to that.

The passage of time will determine how significant the loss will be. Bojan Miovski has an impressive record in Scottish football – 44 goals in 98 appearances, or a goal every 181.75 minutes – and we are led to believe that Youssef Chermiti has the potential to develop into a number nine that scores regularly. If all goes to plan, Dessers may soon drift away from our minds like so many that have departed before do.

Irrespective, although he has been pilloried throughout his time at Rangers, Cyriel Dessers deserves to remembered positively. He certainly shouldn’t have a place in the pantheon of great goalscorers alongside the likes of Ally McCoist, Mark Hateley, Jimmy Millar, Ralph Brand, Jimmy Smith, Willie Thornton, Willie Reid and Derek Johnstone, but likewise he doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as shot shy strikers like Filip Sebo, Egil Ostenstaad, Marcus Gayle, Billy Urquhart and Franny Jeffers.

Thank you for your service to Rangers Football Club. Nice one, Cyriel.