Ally McCoist can remember the time a young Karim Benzema came to cause havoc at Ibrox - and another Real Madrid legend could have been wearing Rangers blue.
The French striker scored the winner in Real Madrid's 1-0 win over Liverpool that sends them through to the Champions League quarter-finals after a dominant 5-2 win at Anfield. Benzema has been one of Europe's deadliest finishers of the last 10 years and during his younger years at Lyon, caused Rangers dismay. He scored twice in a 3-0 win that dumped Walter Smith's side out of the Champions League, when McCoist was assistant boss.
He told talkSPORT that he knew then the forward would become a great after he enacted revenge for the defeat the Premiership side had inflicted upon them in France: "I saw one of his first games in Europe, played at Ibrox with Lyon. We had a tremendous result over there when we won 3-0 and to be fair to him, he came back and scored in the game at Ibrox. I thought he was going to be some player. That was 2007 so he was just a baby, but you could tell he had everything. He's had a fantastic career."
With former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp joining him on the morning radio show, it was an ideal opportunity for McCoist to tell the tale of his recommendation of Benzema's Bernabeu teammate Modric to Rangers. The smooth midfielder eventually moved to Spurs from Dinamo Zagreb in 2008 and the Ibrox legend says it could have been Premiership football for the now 37-year-old if things had worked out differently.
He added: "I have told you the story Harry, I went to over to watch the right-back Vedran Corluka in the Dinamo Zagreb derby game. Walter sent me over to have a look at the big full-back.
"I watched the game and I said to get onto the chairman, see how much you have got in the bank, as there's a wee fella in the middle of the park called Modrid. Get every penny available and I came in to see how the gaffer got on and he said 'forget it, we couldn't get him."
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