Having previously been linked with a move to Rangers, Brazilian attacker Evander has now completed a $10 million deal to play for Portland Timbers in the USA.
That works out at roughly £8.2 million at the present time, which represents very good business on the part of the selling club, Denmark’s Midtjylland.
Evander’s name is one that cropped up time and again over the last couple of transfer windows as a supposed target of Rangers but this price tag has proven to be a very prohibitive marker and a major obstacle in the way of luring the 24-year old to Glasgow.
The Portland Timbers have completed the club-record signing of Brazilian attacking midfielder Evander from FC Midtjylland. Sources say deal is around $10m.
Evander, 24, currently leading Europa League in assists this season. Will play as a No. 10. Big talent. pic.twitter.com/Cq3Jqtdvjv
— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) December 5, 2022
As previously featured by Vital Rangers, the attacking midfielder was earmarked as one who could inflict damage on opponents in Scotland with analyst Patrick Caskie stating:
“I’d pick Evander; he has a more scalable skillset; both would be great domestically, maybe Olaru even moreso as he’s more aggressive and defensively capable but Evander would help us mightily when coming up against teams better than we are and has better sell-on potential.”
In the example above, there was the question of the merits of the potential signing of the Brazilian compared to Denis Olaru of FCSB in his native Romania. Both play in the ’10’ role, tasked with bringing incision and that extra quality, the kind that is sorely sought after at Ibrox.
Other names such as Robert Skov Olsen and Joey Veerman represent those at the upper limits of Rangers realistic budget as well as moves that never materialised. With this bracket of player, we can’t afford to wait too long before their reputation soars too high to send the cost the same way. This is the extent of the challenge for Rangers to get the scouting right in order to bring such players to Ibrox.