Football is huge in Scotland; the fans there have a lot of passion and loyalty, with European disappoqintments being the only wall left to climb over. The Scottish league is also pretty much a one-horse race, but that doesn’t stop Scottish fans from backing their team every game and placing lots of football bets online.
One of (if not THE) biggest clubs in Scotland is Rangers. They’ve been less of a big club nowadays for reasons that will be explained later, but the sheer size of their brand, name and fans make them known throughout the world. Here are ten facts about Rangers that you might not know!
10. Champions League
During a season that would see Rangers finish 3rd in the Scottish league, it would also see them get the furthest into the Champions League that they’ve ever been. They got to the round of 16, which is very respectable, and were only defeated by a Villareal side that would reach the semi-finals of the same tournament.
9. John Greig
Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to watch him play, but he’s regarded as Ranger’s best-ever player. He obtained a total of 755 appearances for Rangers, making him the record appearance holder and scored a total of 120 goals which for a defender is extremely good. He played for Rangers for his entire career and even went on to manage the club and then become a Director!
8. Biggest Victory
Rangers have utterly demolished a handful of teams over the years, such as the 10-0 win over Valletta FC in the second leg of the UEFA Cup Winners Cup first round. They had also recorded a 14-2 win against Blairgowrie in 1934 and another 14-2 win again Whitehill in 1883. They’ve also won 13-0 on three occasions in the Scottish Cup.
7. Crowd
The image above differs from the record crowd; I wonder if any stadium could fit the record, which is 143,570 people! It shows how huge the Rangers are; I doubt many clubs have surpassed this in football history.
6. Goal Record
Rangers’ all-time goalscoring record is held by a player by the name of Sam English. He banged in 44 goals in just 35 games before joining my club – Liverpool. His career took a hit as a fellow professional player was killed after a collision with him. After this incident, he would never enjoy playing again and retired at 28 years old. He died early at the age of just 58. What a player he could have been if he had not been blighted by bad luck (It seems to be a trend here).
5. More Crowd Records
Surprisingly, Rangers are the only team in the UK to have surpassed an attendance of 100,000 in all 3 of the domestic competitions. I wonder if this will ever be beaten, or at least for a long time. It further shows the support that Rangers and Scottish football have.
4. 100% Record
The Rangers team of 1898/99 is arguably the greatest Rangers team of all time. They are the only team in the world to have gone through an entire league season and won every game. Yes, that’s right, 18 wins in 18 games. Crazy!
3. Celtic Rivalry
As you can clearly see in the comments here, the Rangers/Celtic rivalry is huge. They both dominated their respective leagues and cups for the majority of said competitions, making them fierce rivals. There’s not really much else to say; the entire world knows of this huge rivalry!
2. Liquidation
Sorry Rangers fans, for showing his face. The guy pictured is Sir David Murray, and he is greatly responsible for the demise of the Rangers. I’ll admit I only know what I’ve read about (this article caught my attention) as I wasn’t old enough to tie my shoelaces when he was in charge. The gist of it is that he bought Rangers with aspirations of conquering the Champions League but poor policies, decision-making, and money management made the club plunge into darkness. It’s sad to see teams like AC Milan, Liverpool and Manchester United losing their dominance, but what happened to Rangers is just cruel.
1. Trophies
After everything Rangers fans have been through, after going from a world elite to a has-been, they still have the greatest trophy cabinet in Europe. Sure, the Rangers of today aren’t the exact same team, but everyone knows they adopted what was, and I have no doubt that Rangers will be back to increase their trophy tally!