'Extraordinary': Owner says Rangers target must cost £9m, he's 'like Messi'

Olimpiu Morutan in action during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualification Group J football match Romania v Iceland, in Bucharest on November 11, 2021. (Photo by Alex Nicodim/NurPhoto via Getty Images) — Photo by Alex Nicodim/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Reported Rangers target Olimpiu Morutan is an ’extraordinary’ talent who should be worth £9 million, his former youth club’s owner Valeriu Iftime says in quotes reported by Fotomac.

Under Steven Gerrard, Rangers’ wingers tended to do a lot of their work in central roles, drifting in from the flanks to become duel ‘number tens’ rather than out-and-out widemen.

Gerrard’s successor Giovanni van Bronckhorst, however, has wasted little time putting his own stamp on things at Ibrox.

The likes of Ryan Kent and Ianis Hagi are being asked to stretch the pitch to it’s very limits these days, tasked with treading the touchline rather than finding pockets of space through the middle.

22-year-old Morutan, then, could be tailor-made for Gio-ball.

The Galatasaray ace is a fleet-footed forward cut from the same cloth as Kent, someone who loves nothing more than leaving full-backs dizzied and dazed with a burst of acceleration and a sixpence shimmy.

Gigi Becali, the always-outspoken owner of Morutan’s old employers FCSB, even likened the rampaging Romanian to a certain Lionel Messi.

And while Iftime did not go quite that far, he did suggest that the club formerly known as Steaua Bucharest sold Morutan to Galatasaray for a mere fraction of his actual transfer value.

Will Olimpiu Morutan be Van Bronckhorst’s first Rangers signing?

“(Becali) sold Morutan very cheaply. I think Morutan is the worst transfer he’s ever made,” says Iftime, the owner of Romanian outfit FC Botosani.

“I kept Morutan at my club for another year and a half and I think I made good money from him. He should not have been sold (by FCSB) for less than his value of 10 million euros.