Rangers ace tipped for international stardom by national team boss after 'winning midfielder for the future'

Nicolas Raskin’s recent emergence on the international stage has left Belgian national team boss Rudi Garcia convinced the Rangers midfielder is a star of the future.

Raskin - signed from Standard Liege for £1.5million plus add-ons in January 2023 - has been a standout performer in a disastrous campaign for the Ibrox side with his impressive performances earning him a spot in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year as well as a maiden call-up to the senior Belgium squad for their Nations League play-off against Ukraine.

The 24-year-old made his debut as a substitute in a 3-1 first-leg defeat but proved instrumental in the second leg by helping the Red Devils to a dominant 3-0 victory.

Belgium boss full of praise for Nicolas Raskin

And Garcia feels fortunate to have the exciting Light Blues ace at his disposal with Raskin now seemingly in direct competition with fellow countryman Youri Tielemans and Amadou Onana for a place in the starting XI going forward.

“When you see Raskin's match in the return leg against Ukraine, you tell yourself that we've won a midfielder for the future,” Garcia admitted. “Because Nico has shown that he's able to be aggressive, defensive, win duels, he's able to propose himself because he likes to come search the balls.

“He played almost 100 balls during the game with more than 90 per cent pass accuracy, while playing forward, because it's easy to have nine per cent pass accuracy when you only play backwards.”

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Transfer interest mounts in Nicolas Raskin

Raskin is expected to attract more transfer interest from clubs in England and beyond this summer as uncertainty grows over his long-term future in Glasgow, with Rangers tipped to make a healthy profit if they decide sell the player.

Garcia’s comments follow that of Ibrox legend Peter Lovenkrands, who believes new sporting director Kevin Thelwell along with Rangers’ incoming American owners could face a major headache over whether to keep one of their most valuable assets or use the money to fund a squad rebuild.

The Dane stated: “Raskin is potentially the most valuable player in the squad. He’s proven it and been fantastic - definitely Rangers’ player of the year. But when Celtic have had good players who have been great for them, they sell them on and get a lot of money. They’re great at that and have been doing it for years.

“When Rangers have had them, we haven’t sold them when we should have, like Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos. That’s a problem for the club so you need to look at the bigger picture with Raskin. Are you going to sell him or keep him and try to build the team around him? He’s a young boy but they need money coming in.

“Where will that come from if they don’t sell him? How much is he worth? It depends what league is looking at him. If it’s the Premier League you can always put a wee bit extra on top. But he’s definitely the most valuable player they have.”

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