It’s fair to say the vast majority of the players who left Rangers last summer will not be looking back on their debut seasons at their new clubs with a great deal of fondness.
Ryan Kent has barely kicked a ball since Christmas at Fenerbahce. Filip Helander is leaving Odense Boldklub already after losing the captain’s armband and being relegated from the Danish top-flight.
Glen Kamara was part of the Leeds United side who suffered play-off final heartbreak to Southampton at Wembley. Mateusz Zukowski, meanwhile, found himself dropped to reserves after a barren run with Slask Wroclaw.
The success of Fashion Sakala, at least, bucks a rather miserable trend of former Rangers favourites suffering elsewhere.
Fashion Sakala a record breaker in Saudi Arabia
No player in Al-Fayha’s history, Almowatan points out, had ever scored quite so many goals in a single campaign as he did. Sakala ended 2023/24 with 22 to his name from 41 1 appearances, and 19 in the Saudi Pro League.
To think, the biggest criticism facing Sakala during his two years in Glasgow concerned his end product. Or a lack thereof. For all of Sakala’s effort and endeavour, he would often reach the penalty area and fall apart like a jigsaw on a coffee table with a leg missing. Think Daizen Maeda but without the numbers to back him up.
Something has clicked, then, for Sakala in Saudi. Perhaps it’s down to the quality of the opposition. Maybe Middle Eastern football just suits him better than the uncompromising physicality of the Scottish game.
Rangers would also come up against sides sitting deep and defending in numbers domestically. Sakala’s Al-Fayha side come 16th out of 18 for average possession, however (XValue). And their counter-attacking style obviously benefits a man far more effective when given wide open spaces to run into; Sakala at Rangers often looking like a blunt object when something a little more subtle was required to pick the lock.
Only two players finished ahead of him in the Saudi Pro League’s Golden Boot charts. And there are no prizes for guessing the identity of those joining him on the podium. Al-Hilal’s former Fulham talisman Aleksandr Mitrovic finished on 28 with Al-Nassr superstar Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the tree again.
35 goals in 31 games now for a man who. haswon the Golden Boot six times in four different countries; England, Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
Can former Rangers forward run Cristiano Ronaldo close?
But while Mitrovic’s Al-Hilal and Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr finished first and second in the table, Al-Fayha ended the campaign in ninth. With that in mind, arguably Sakala’s goals-per-game record is the most impressive of the trio, without the same quality service served up by the likes of Sadio Mane and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
Sakala’s league tally of 19, meanwhile, sees him finish ahead of Milinkovic-Savic, Mane, Karim Benzema, Moussa Dembele, Riyad Mahrez an former Manchester United forward Odion Ighalo in the goals charts.
“I am very thankful to the board for bringing him here,” Vuk Rasovic, the Al-Fayha coach, told the Glasgow Times recently. “We had long conversations with Rangers to bring him and, in the end, he came. I’m glad he did.”
Amid all the money flying around in Middle Eastern football these days, the £3 million fee Al-Fayha paid to bring Sakala over from Glasgow barely scratches the surface. A rare bargain of a signing in a league of excess.
“He enjoys playing football and he always plays with a smile,” adds Rasovic. “I’ve told him he must score more goals.”
More than 22? More than 19 in the league? If Fashion Sakala can live up to Rasovic’s demands, perhaps even Mitrovic and Ronaldo might have a bit of competition for the top-two spots in 2024/25.
