Kyle Lafferty has not made a dream start at Norwegian outfit Sarpsborg after being let go by Scottish Premiership powerhouses Rangers.
It hasn’t taken long for Kyle Lafferty to cause controversy in Scandinavia.
A nomadic striker who moved to Norway this summer after spells in Italy, Turkey, Switzerland and Scotland, the former Rangers forward would have been hoping to make an immediate impression in his first appearance for Norwegian outfit Sarpsborg in a league clash against Viking.
That, he certainly did. But not in the way he might have hoped.
Lafferty was sent off after just 69 minutes on his Sarpsborg debut against Viking, catching Rune Hove with a flailing arm to earn a second yellow card. To make matters worse, his new club collapsed with ten men, throwing away a two-goal lead to draw in front of their disappointed supporters.
“I think it’s very ugly. A great, strong player like Hove does not lie down for no reason. If it is judged as a blow, it is strange (that it wasn’t a straight red),” Viking coach Bjarne Berntsen told VG.
“He was sent off 70 minutes late. They should be happy (that it wasn’t a straight red)” added midfielder Kristoffer Lokberg. “(It was a) bright red card. How’s that yellow?”
Lafferty scored just seven goals in all competitions for Rangers last season with a dream return to Ibrox quickly turning sour after the January arrival of Jermain Defoe pushed him down the pecking order. The Northern Irish international was deemed surplus to requirements at the start of the summer.
Though if Lafferty is hoping to show Rangers that they made a mistake writing him off, this is hardly the start he would have wished for.
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