Everyone associates the Champions League with glitz and glamour. And I got a taste of that as a young player at Rangers – even when I WASN’T playing. For our group game against Monaco in September 2000, myself and Peter Lovenkrands didn’t make the match-day squad. The current gaffer Gio van Bronckhorst scored the winning goal for us that night.
But while we sat in the stand, the chairman David Murray called us over. Because I was a fellow Edinburgh boy, he wanted to introduce me to his friend. It was only 007 himself, Sir Sean Connery. David told him I was one of the club’s up and coming talents. Meeting James Bond in Monte Carlo? It doesn’t get much more glamorous than that, does it?
And on the pitch, Europe’s top competition doesn’t disappoint either. Incredibly, I managed to score in my first Champions League game for Rangers – and also my last. For the Monaco return at Ibrox, there was a clamour for me to start. I had just scored FIVE in one game against St Mirren in the league – but you could never be sure with Dick Advocaat as gaffer.
I actually remember one of the newspaper headlines in the build-up. It was something like, ‘Oh no, he’s not starting Kenny’. With a picture of the South Park character next to it.
I had been in Champions League squads before but hadn’t even made the bench – like the night I met Sir Sean. So to actually start, to stand at Ibrox hearing that music before kick off – the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck just thinking about it.
It’s sensational. And unbelievably, I scored after TWO minutes. Arthur Numan put an up-and-under cross into the box and it somehow found its way to me.
I didn’t strike it perfectly but it took a deflection past the keeper. That feeling was something else. I did the full Klinsmann celebration and had Barry Ferguson trying to pull the shirt off my back.
As a kid, I used to watch the European Cup and the Champions League on TV. It’s the level every player wants to be at, nothing beats it.
So to do it for Rangers and score was a dream come true. Unfortunately against Monaco big Lorenzo Amoruso went on a mazy later in the game, got caught and Marco Simeone scored to make it 2-2 and we were out of the competition. At the end of the campaign, I moved on to Wolves.
But I was still only 21 so I had high hopes of getting back to the Champions League, maybe even with an English club. Little did I know that it would lead me back to Glasgow – in the other half of the city. I’m the only player in history to score in the Champions League for both Rangers and Celtic.
That’s a stat that might NEVER be beaten. And I have to say that the lure of Champions League football played a part in certain decisions I’ve made throughout my career. That’s how big it is. I always wanted to be at the top level of the game, to test myself against the best.
That’s why Rangers’ play-off tie against PSV on Tuesday night is so important, for the players and the club. Even though it’s a qualifier, that famous music will be blaring at Ibrox again for the first time in almost 12 years.
And at that moment, it will hit home to the players what it means. Rangers have essentially taken on Champions League teams in the Europa League for the past few seasons. When you think about Dortmund, Lyon, Leipzig, Porto, Spartak Moscow, Villarreal, Galatasaray, they’ve all been affected by the atmosphere.
And the core of Gio’s team, the likes of James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos – they’re now used to playing against elite sides.
But actually being involved in the top competition is where you want to be. And you know what? I believe Rangers, as a club, have been building towards this moment for four years.
Everything that’s been put in place since Steven Gerrard was appointed has been geared up to this opportunity. They’re on the verge, just on the other side of the door, waiting for it to open. They’ve got two games to get past and I really fancy them against PSV.
If they can take a lead into the second leg in Eindhoven, Rangers will believe they can score in Holland. They’ve got players who can hurt you on the counter attack with their pace. Look at Dortmund, Moscow, Porto in recent seasons. This team can score goals away from home.
At Ibrox, it doesn’t matter who’s visiting – there’s an inevitability about what’s going to happen. That’s a brilliant place to be in for Rangers and the supporters.
There’s a belief there that they’ll get the job done on their own patch and I reckon they’ll win 1-0 or 2-0. What I like about this team, particularly under Giovanni, is that they learn lessons.
Watching every game this season, the first three were very laboured. They lacked energy and intensity against teams sitting in.
Union St Gilloise did that last week, but the difference was, Rangers played at a completely different tempo and ran all over the top of them. They applied so much pressure and found a way to win.
Rangers fans know they can play like that so they won’t accept anything less now. The speed they played at midweek is what they need to do in every game, domestically and in Europe.
Because that slow build-up play we saw against the likes of Livingston and then Union away? That won’t win you anything. PSV will be a step up under Ruud van Nistelrooy and I expect them to be attack-minded. They scored four against Monaco in the last round.
As a player, van Nistelrooy was an unbelievable striker. I played against him for Scotland against Holland and also in England when he was at Manchester United.
At one point, he was probably the best No.9 in the world. It’s no surprise to see him go into management.
For him and Giovanni to face each other in a Champions League play-off, it adds another bit of spice to it. But if PSV go on the attack at Ibrox, that type of game suits Rangers. If both ties are open, especially the second leg, it will be made for Kent, Morelos – even Tavernier, who is often the catalyst.
That’s why I think Rangers can go through. Oh, and my last Champions League goal? That was against Bursaspor away in 2010.
Not once did I take playing at that level for granted in my career. These Rangers players shouldn’t either, that’s why they have to grab this chance to reach the elite level.
