Rangers are making early moves in the transfer window and Philippe Clement will be delighted to have added Oscar Cortes for next season.
The 20-year old impressed when he was first signed in January only to see injury end his season prematurely.
Nils Koppen has had his eye on Oscar Cortes for some time and the Colombian youth cap is clearly delighted to be staying in Glasgow.
Rangers negotiate level deal to land Oscar Cortes
The deal has been cleverly constructed by the Rangers recruitment director.
Cortes will be on loan during the 2024/25 season before the Ibrox outfit, in a similar way to Mohamed Diomande’s deal, make it permanent next summer.
A fee in the region of £4m was said to be the figure that Lens were looking for in an immediate permanent deal as news came out of France over the weekend.
Rangers will basically be paying what Lens paid for Cortes last summer when he was one of South America’s most highly rated teenagers after starring for his country in the Under-20s World Cup.
With four goals and two assists in five games he was one of the players of the tournament.
Considering the £7m paid for Ryan Kent, Rangers have landed a bargain and deferred payment until next summer to free up cash for this year’s rebuild.
The elephant in the room is the hamstring surgery that saw Cortes miss so much of the season, however, having kept a close eye on his rehabilitation, it always seemed like a longer stay was on the cards.
Speaking on the announcement, Cortes can’t wait to get started again once he is fully fit:
“I am delighted to be able to stay at Rangers.
“It was an honour and privilege for me to join the club in January and I was enjoying my football under the manager and playing alongside my team-mates.
“Sadly, the injury ended my season early, but I have been working hard and I am excited to help the team and play in front of the wonderful fans again soon.”
Can Koppen complete wing dream team double act?
He wasn’t available for long, but Oscar Cortes proved almost immediately that he was an upgrade on all of the wingers at the club.
Wingers who are over 6ft tall, comfortable on both feet, fast and good in the air are like gold dust.
He has the technical ability to cope with the demands of European football but also the physicality and work rate to succeed domestically too.
It was such a shame that Cortes and Abdallah Sima never got to play together because they would have offered a more potent attack than Rangers fans have seen for some years and given Philippe Clement the tools needed to secure the Premiership title.
There is still a chance that they might get seen together, if Koppen can be as persuasive with Brighton as he was with Lens.
