Ridvan Yilmaz revealed his intention to become a smash hit at Rangers - before making the club a fortune like Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo.
The Turkish international was officially unveiled as an Ibrox new boy, one week after sealing a £5.3m million move from boyhood heroes Besiktas. And, while the 21-year-old has set his immediate sights on winning the title in his first season in Scotland as well as making it to the Champions League, he admits his long term ambition is to move on again and rake in millions of pounds worth of profit for his new club.
Ibrox boss Gio van Bronckhorst moved quickly to snap up Yilmaz as a replacement for Basey after the Nigerian international joined Ajax a a £23m deal. That business came shortly after Aribo sealed a £10m sale to Southampton. And the ambitious Yilmaz believes joining Rangers can help fast-track his one career to the next level.
He said: “I don’t know how many players they sold before me but I know they sold the player who used to play in my place. And this is very important for Rangers. Hopefully I will be one of those players who isn’t sold for a long time. But when I leave the club I leave them a lot of money.
My dream is to get Rangers into the Champions League and also to finish the league in a good position, to win more cups, to contribute. I would also like to go to bigger clubs. And Yilmaz admits his first aim is to help Van Bronckhorst overturn last week’s 2-0 defeat against Union Saint Gilloise to stay on course for UEFA’s elite competition.
The youngster came off the bench in Belgium and could win his first start ahead of the second leg against Kilmarnock tomorrow. But he has insisted his team mates will have to try twice as hard as they did on Tuesday night when they turned in a woeful performance and were fortunate to escape with just a two goal deficit.
He said: “It’s an important match for the fans and the club. We have the ability to reach the Champions League and I think that will be the result.“In the Champions League, players should double their performance and the teams are always challenging. We have to double the performance and do better because it’s challenging.”
Yilmaz also believes new boss Van Bronckhorst - a world class left back during his days at Barcelona and with Holland - can help him master the position too.
He said: “It’s quite important for me that Gio has played left-back, I’m going to learn quite a lot from him. Before I came here we talked a lot about what I was good at, and what things I could improve on. I think I’m going to learn a lot.”
Yilmaz has held a heart-to-heart with Van Bronckhorst’s former Rangers teammate Tugay before signing on the dotted line in Glasgow.
He went on: “Yes we talked and he told me that Rangers is a big club, an old club and he told me that the club would support me along the way. In and out of the club. This is really important for me and I am happy about this. The best advice that he gave me was that I could improve myself in terms of football, language and strength.
“He also added that Rangers fans and the club is quite passionate. That was quite important advice. I have felt the history of the club already. The historical and cultural atmosphere. I have felt it in the stadium too, It’s quite old but it’s quite magical. I have played for a big club in Turkey, and I’m playing for a big club here in Scotland. I’m going to enjoy this.”
And the youngster already has one eye on sampling the white hot atmosphere of derby day in Glasgow.
He said: “I have played in really big games in Turkey and I really enjoyed it. I’ll do that here too, and I’ll do my best and I am looking forward to it.”
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