Europa League: Leon Balogun lifts the lid on exclusion from Rangers squad

Nigeria star, Leon Balogun has voiced out on his omission from the Rangers squad list for the 2023/24 UEFA Europa League.

The 35-year-old originally joined Rangers from Brighton and Hove Albion, and played sixty-five games for The Teddy Bears, before moving on to QPR in the summer of 2022 before rejoining Rangers in August 2023.

However, he has not been getting regular playing time with Philippe Clement coming in to coach the side after Michaele Beale fell out of favour with the club hierarchy.

Balogun played against Dundee and then started the next game last weekend in the club’s 3-1 over Hearts following his incredible performance.

Despite his exclusion from the Europa list, the Nigerian is not ruling out the possibility of getting a go should the club qualify for the next round.

“I am very happy at the moment. I am coming off the back of some quite tough weeks. I found myself out of the active squad, not the whole squad completely, so to come back from that I am just really grateful,” Balogun said in quotes revealed by Scottish Sun.

“I am so happy I was able to capitalize on my chance. I’m only looking forward. Of course, it was a predicament where you start to think about things. I was never one to stick my head in the sand and give up, so I just stayed patient and tried to do my thing in training.

“He’s very demanding. If you look at his stature and his presence, it’s different, and that is not a dig at Mick Beale. They are just two completely different characters, and he’s got standards, but he gives you a good level of confidence.”