Club say Rangers took on 3 of their young stars, Ibrox coaches gave positive feedback on one

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It remains to be seen whether any of the players will link up permanently with Steven Gerrard’s Rangers after visiting Ibrox.

One of Rangers’ key players at last month’s Alkass Cup is not even on the books at Ibrox.

And as his teammates flew back to Glasgow with dreams of one day gatecrashing Steven Gerrard’s first team, Francis Jacobs had considerably more miles to travel.

Jacobs started all but one of Rangers’ five games in Qatar, but belongs for the time being to the Gers’ American affiliates, Orange County SC.

Now 15, Jacobs became the United Soccer League’s youngest ever professional last year and was invited, along with two of his, slightly older but still teenage, teammates, the goalkeeper Aaron Cervantes and forward Diego Lopez, to train with Rangers in December, according to his current employers.

“The essence of the Glasgow Rangers partnership is founded on football and player development,” the Orange County president of soccer operations, Oliver Wiss, told the club’s official website this week. “And our young, talented players get the opportunity to be showcased worldwide.”

And Wiss said of Jacobs’ extended spell with Rangers: “Francis definitely made the most of this incredible opportunity. And it shows the remarkable job our coaching staff has done in preparing Francis to put himself in a position to succeed.

“The daily training with a professional team and the extra work with the staff have paid off for him. To go out there and do so well in a world-class youth tournament playing an age group up, exceeded all of our expectations. It shows that our professional development structure is working and paying dividends.

“He contributed and the feedback we got from the coaches was very positive. The biggest compliment of all is that he started [four] of the games. He was very professional and fit in with their talented team like he was already there for a long time.

“Francis started pre-season with us, played versus MLS and college teams and then flew out to Glasgow. He trained two days with them there and then flew out to Qatar. Dealing well with multiple international flights and different time zones shows he’s very resilient and is taking advantage of his opportunities.”

Whether or not Jacobs will return to Rangers in the future remains to be seen.

Following his return to Orange County, the American will team up with a trio of young Rangers players, Cammy Palmer, Daniel Finlayson and Matthew Shiels.