Glasgow Rangers boss Steven Gerrard once admitted to trying to sign Toni Kroos while at Liverpool.
Glasgow Rangers midfielder Steven Davis is about to face one of the biggest tests in football, as his Northern Ireland side take on Germany tonight.
The Rangers man is set to start for his country in midfield this evening, and he could be tasked with marking Tony Kroos.
It is not the first time that the Rangers star has had to come up against Kroos, but the challenge of stopping the German talisman is unlikely to be an easy one.
Kroos is one of the most talented players in world football, and Rangers boss Steven Gerrard knows his quality well.
Gerrard tried to get the former Real Madrid man to sign for Liverpool when he was still in his playing days.
“Our target in 2014 was ridiculously optimistic. Brendan asked me to take a crack at trying to talk Toni Kroos into signing for Liverpool,” Gerrard wrote in his book ‘My Story’, as serialised by the Daily Mail.
“Some of the best footballers in the world can also be the most respectful. Kroos did not make me feel like I was a total idiot. But, of course, he would soon sign for Real.”
“It was the same ritual every summer,” said Gerrard. “The club would let me know which long-shot target they had in mind and ask me to contact him.”
If Northern Ireland can manage to keep Kroos quiet tonight then their chances of getting a shock result against the Germans will increase massively.
A Northern Ireland victory would seriously boost Davis’s nation’s chances of being at Euro 2020.
Rangers man Davis has helped Northern Ireland take maximum points from their four qualifying games so far, but they have a tough draw with Germany and the Netherlands also in their group.
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