Rangers struck gold on a midfielder who went on to win the Champions League and World Cup

Glasgow Rangers ended a three-game winless run by securing their place in the 2024 Scottish Cup final after a solid display from the Ibrox side at Hampden on Sunday.

Hearts were swept aside 2-0 as the Light Blues looked comfortable through large spells of the game. It was a far better performance than the previous two matches in the Premiership, which now sees the club trailing Celtic by three points.

Cyriel Dessers was the hero at the national stadium, scoring two well-taken goals, sending Rangers through to a first Scottish Cup final showdown against Celtic since 2002. That time, the blue side of Glasgow won 3-2 courtesy of a last-gasp Peter Lovenkrands winner.

While the performance was good and several under-fire players stepped up to the occasion, it proved to be a disappointing one for Abdallah Sima, who was forced off after just 15 minutes with what looked like a hamstring injury.

Philippe Clement will be hoping Sima isn’t sidelined for too long, especially considering his record in front of goal this term.

Abdallah Sima’s statistics at Rangers

Michael Beale was the manager to bring Sima to Glasgow last summer, securing his services on a season-long loan deal from Brighton & Hove Albion.

The move has certainly been a shrewd one. In 38 games for the Light Blues, the 22-year-old winger has scored 16 goals while chipping in with two assists, all while missing 14 matches after sustaining an injury whilst on international duty with Senegal in January.

There is no doubt he would have already broken through the 20 goal barrier by now had he remained fit. His influence came to the fore during the recent clash against Celtic where he netted a second-half equaliser after coming on as a substitute, and it is crucial he is fit for the title run-in.

He will return to Brighton this summer, yet could Clement perhaps try and wrangle a permanent deal for the youngster due to his impact at the club this season?

Abdallah Sima’s market value in 2024

The Senegalese winger is rated at £6.6m as per Football Transfers’ xTV model (expected transfer value) and if he does recover in time to play a part in the final six games of the campaign, this could potentially rise between now and the start of the summer transfer window.

Clement may not have many funds to work with during the summer unless he ships out a few players, but if Sima were to be available for a realistic fee, he could be a worthy addition to the squad.

His current valuation may indicate Rangers will have to splash out £6m or more to sign him, which could be slightly outside their budget.

it is a reasonable market value considering his displays, but Rangers actually sold a player back in 1998 who was worth more than double Sima if adjusted for 2024 money; Gennaro Guttuso.

When Rangers signed Gennaro Gattuso

The late, great Walter Smith had led Rangers to nine league championships in a row during the 1996/97 campaign and was looking to bolster his squad that summer to do what no team in Scotland had done before, win ten titles in succession.

There were plenty of incomings that summer as Smith splashed the cash to sign Lorenzo Amoruso, Marco Negri and Sergio Porrini in a bid to make history.

Gattuso was also signed, brought in for nothing having previously spent time at Perugia, and it looked like the diminutive Italian could be a big part of the club’s future, such was his vast talent.

In his only full season at Ibrox, the youngster made 37 appearances, scoring four goals in the process, but it was to no avail as they ended the campaign without a trophy for the first time since the 1980s.

Despite playing 11 matches at the start of the following season, it was evident he wasn’t in Dick Advocaat’s plans for the future and was sold for nearly £4.2m to Salernitana back in his homeland.

Gennaro Gattuso’s transfer value in 2024 money

This fee represented a decent piece of transfer business for someone who was clearly going to be pushed aside for Advocaat’s own signings, and it turned out that the Gers hit the jackpot on the 5 foot 9 brute.

In 2024 – with Totally Money adjusted for inflation over the years – that transfer fee would now be worth a staggering £18.2m, proving how impressive a sale it really was for the Dutchman.

A few years later, however, many of the Ibrox faithful must have wondered what would have happened if the Gers kept the Italian midfielder as he began to shine for AC Milan.

What Gennaro Gattuso did after leaving Rangers

He joined Milan in 1999 and spent the next 13 seasons winning everything that was available to him, which included two Champions League titles and two Serie A crowns, making 468 appearances for the club in the process.

Of course, he was also part of the Italy squad which won the World Cup in Germany back in 2006, playing six of their seven games as they became champions of the world for the fourth time.

It was a career full of highlights, with the player emerging as a tough tackler and someone who was not to be messed with.

Journalist Jerry Mancini lauded Gattuso for his abilities on the pitch, saying: “He was a tenacious tackler and great at winning the ball back. A great leader and fought for every inch on the pitch.”

It would be interesting to see just what he would have achieved had Gattuso remained in Glasgow for another few years, but Advocaat’s decision to move him on certainly brought the club a decent financial windfall at the time.

It shows how good he was that his value was more than every single Rangers player currently since he moved back to Italy in 1998, and he certainly fulfilled his potential for both Milan and Italy over the next 15 years.