It’s official. Gedion Zelalem will join storied Scottish club Rangers on loan until January. After nearly a week of talk and speculation and a couple trips back and forth to Glasgow, Arsenal and Rangers both made the announcement today. The 18-year-old midfielder was in training today with his new team and the Rangers website even has an interview with him after the training session.
Rangers is a club based in Glasgow, Scotland that is rife with soccer tradition. They boast 54 first division Scottish league titles dating back to 1891. That number overshadows their 33 Scottish FA Cup trophies and 27 Scottish League Cup titles. Their trophy case also includes a 1972 European Cup Winners’ Cup (yes, two “cups”) win over Dynamo Moscow, a tournament that was a predecessor to the Champions League and Europa League.
However, in June 2012 Rangers FC began a liquidation process after the club failed to reach an agreement with a creditor. The club was sold and reformed, but was forced out of the Scottish Premiership by vote and inevitably had to begin their 2012/13 campaign in the fourth division of Scottish soccer. Rangers have since earned promotion twice and lost in the promotion playoffs in the Championship last season.
A Rangers loan for Zelalem has a lot of advantages, one of which is the atmosphere. Glasgow is a passionate soccer base to say the least. The Rangers-Celtic derby, known as the Old Firm, is the fiercest rivalry in all of European club soccer based in a history of religious, political and social ideologies and it never passes without a few clashes between fans. Zelalem will face media scrutiny and criticism and will have the chance to play in front of 50,000 loud fans each week at Ibrox Stadium, an environment that will be beneficial if he hopes to be on the big stages with Arsenal someday.
In addition, Rangers manager Mark Warburton has worked diligently since his recent time at Brentford to gain a reputation with top English coaches that he can take on their talented youngsters and help develop them for the next level. In the respect, Zelalem will join fellow English talent in Tottenham U-21 players Nathan Oduwa and Dominic Ball in Glasgow.
Paired with the environment of Ibrox, Arsenal will feel content in knowing it should be a good place for the US U-20 playmaker to gain confidence in a physical first team setting. Rangers have won all six of their matches so far this season, which includes three league games. The nine points for the Championship table goes along with three cup wins. They have outscored their opposition 20-4 in those six matches and boasted a +30 goal differential last season by netting 69 tallies in 36 league matches. Those are salivating numbers for a playmaker like Zelalem.
He will join a list of notable American names that were Rangers players. Former United States national team captains Claudio Reyna and Carlos Bocanegra played for the Scottish club, as well as four-time World Cup veteran DaMarcus Beasley. Bocanegra and fellow US internationals Alejandro Bedoya and Maurice Edu were all on the Rangers team in 2011/12 right before its insolvency. Bedoya and Edu chose to leave, while Bocanegra stayed to play three games in the fourth division before going out on loan in Spain and then returning to the US to finish his career.
Zelalem’s first opportunity to make his debut for his new side will be in a Scottish League Cup second round match on Wednesday at Airdrieonians, which is a 30-minute bus ride outside of Glasgow.
The Arsenal website states that the loan deal goes through January 3, 2016, which would make the Berlin-born Zelalem eligible for 19 scheduled matches, plus additional cup ties if they continue to win. The Rangers website notes in their press release that the loan will be reviewed in January, which makes it appear that there is an option on the table for the loan to continue through the end of the season.
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