Good News: Rangers best player has signed a new two-year contract.

Good News: Rangers best player has signed a new two-year contract.

There have been a number of young players who’ve broken through at Rangers in recent seasons, only to disappear into obscurity.

 

Youngsters who have been deemed good enough to take the step up to the first-team, if even only for a cameo, before their Rangers stories hit an abrupt end.

One such case is that of Scotland youth international Dapo Mebude, who made his Rangers debut in a 2-1 defeat to Kilmarnock in May 2019.

 

Since then Mebude’s footballing career is one tinged with frustration and tragedy but three years on from leaving Scotland, the 23-year-old is back up north on trial.

 

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Dapo Mebude on trial in Scotland

Big things were once expected of Dapo Mebude at Rangers but it never quite materialised for the striker in Glasgow.

Having joined Rangers as a nine-year-old in 2011, Mebude spent ten years coming through at Auchenhowie before moving to Watford in 2021.

 

Having spent a brief stint on loan at Queen of the South whilst in Glasgow, this was an exciting move to an ambitious English club for Mebude but after a serious injury, it never happened at the Hornets.

 

Going on loan to AFC Wimbledon – where Mebude was given opportunities – only a year later did the Scotland U21 international striker wind up in Belgium.

Signing for KV Oostende, disaster struck in January 2024 when Mebude was hospitalised following a car crash which so nearly took his life.

 

Now trying to get his career back on track, Dapo Mebude spent time on trial with Livingston this summer but now finds himself being put through his paces at Dunfermline.

 

At least that’s according to Pars manager James McPake, who has been speaking with the Courier.

 

“Dapo Mebude is in on trial,” revealed McPake. “He has trained with us for the last couple of days. We are still looking (for signings).”

Steven Gerrard & Jermain Defoe once hailed young Ger

Should Dapo Mebude strike a deal in the Scottish Championship with Dunfermline, Rangers fans will wish him all the best.

 

But there was a brief moment when Mebude looked set to break through into the Ibrox first-team and take the Premiership by storm.

 

The man who gave Mebude his Rangers debut, Steven Gerrard, once waxed lyrical about the kid’s potential and tipped him to have a ‘huge future’ in the game.

 

“I think young Dapo has a huge future, he has big potential,” Gerrard told the Scottish Sun in February 2019.

He is probably not ready to be thrown into the deep end just yet but I think he will be ready for a cameo. There is no doubt about it, he will play for Rangers at some point.”

 

It wasn’t just the former Rangers manager who rated Dapo either, with ex-Gers striker Jermain Defoe describing the youngster as his ‘little bro’.

 

In an emotional Instagram message, Defoe told Mebude ‘I’ll be watching you score goals for years whilst I’m an old man at home drinking’.

The striker has also previously claimed that one of his ‘goals’ is to come back to Rangers and be the main man at Ibrox.

 

“One of my goals is to go back to Rangers one day,” Mebud told the Athletic in April. “I would love to be the main man scoring goals at Ibrox. That’s my home.

 

“You don’t lose talent overnight or in a year or two. I’m a firm believer that if you work as hard as you can then everyone will achieve what they are meant to achieve, whether it is at (age) 21, 27 or 30.”

 

Let’s hope that Dapo Mebude can impress at Dunfermline and that the former Rangers talent can get his once promising career back on track.