It just the reality these days that clubs with the sort of revenue Rangers enjoy, compared to the more deep-pocketed destinations in European football, have little choice but to adopt a sign-low, sell-high transfer policy.
Technical director and talentspotter Nils Koppen landed the likes of Hamza Igamane, Jefte, and Connor Barron last summer—for a combined fee in the region of £3 million—with the intention of bringing young, exciting talent to Rangers, but also players who could make the Glasgow giants a considerable profit later down the line.
With reports claiming that Chelsea are keen on Jefte, and with Hamza Igamane linked to Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, and more, Rangers would already be in a position to demand an eight-figure sum should offers arrive in the coming months.
But while Rangers’ financial muscle is dwarfed by the Schwarzenegger-esque biceps of those Premier League bodybuilders, Philippe Clement’s team are still higher up the proverbial food chain than the likes of FC Nordsjaelland.
Rangers raided FC Nordsjaelland to sign Mohamed Diomande
The Danish outfit lost a whole host of star players in 2024. Including but not limited to Mohamed Diomande, the midfielder Rangers paid £4.3 million for on the back of an impressive loan spell in Scotland.
Nordsjaelland also lost Ibrahim Osman to Brighton and Hove Albion, Adamo Nagalo to PSV Eindhoven, and one of the rising stars of European football—Conrad Harder—to Sporting Lisbon. Talented full-back Daniel Svensson joined Borussia Dortmund at the start of 2025, too.
And, after finishing second in the Danish Super Liga table in 2023 and then fourth in 2024, Nordsjaelland’s current position of seventh perhaps reflects the difficulties of losing so many regular starters in the space of only a few months.
Diomande, for instance, scored eight times and made 36 appearances as Nordsjaelland finished runners-up to Copenhagen a couple of years ago.
But rather than wallow in self-pity, the Tigers are doing what they have always done. Reinvesting, rebuilding, and adapting to the loss of Diomande, Harder, Svensson, and co. by bringing in yet more up-and-comers to take their place.
The cycle continues, even if the results have taken a turn for the worse.
“It’s been intense and exciting. In the summer, there were eight players who left us [including Diomande]. Five of whom played regularly,” head coach Jens Fonsskov Olsen tells Bold.
“If you look at it completely soberly, only Kian Hansen and Andreas Hansen are left from the team that played last season. That means we had to create a new football team, but that’s what we’re doing. And we’re happy to do that.
“And then we always get this question: ‘Do you have anyone who can step up?’. Time will tell. It’s a really exciting squad with huge potential.
“You could say that we are missing something because there are so many [players] that have left us. What challenges us is that the turnover rate of players right now is so fast.”
Nordsjaelland were never going to deny Diomande his Ibrox chance
Nordsjaelland did not stand in Diomande’s way when Rangers offered him the chance to stay at Ibrox on a permanent basis. That, in truth, is what their whole recruitment philosophy is based on.
If ambitious young talents feel that Nordsjaelland would look to keep them against their will rather than allow them to step up to the next level, they probably wouldn’t be able to lure players such as Diomande to the appropriately named Right to Dream Park in the first place.
“It wasn’t intended that two out of the four who left us would leave,” Olsen adds. “But sometimes the economy just gets so big, while the players’ desire to break out of our team also gets bigger.
“And then, of course, they have to be allowed to do that. And then we have to be skilled enough to put the others in play. But we are confident. I think it looks really interesting with the players we are going to unleash.”
While he is yet to fully justify an expensive price tag, Mohamed Diomande is one of the Rangers players Philippe Clement singled out when discussing those who have made big steps forward in their development of late.
Diomande is the perfect foil for Nico Raskin in the center of the park, too. One a ball carrier and occasional box-crasher, the other a ball-winner.
With five goals, he is Rangers’ top scorer outside of the attacking quartet of Cyriel Dessers, Hamza Igamane, Vaclav Cerny, and Danilo.
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