The non-elite youth Rangers star who nearly quit football

“I’m a striker who is maybe, for the eye, not the most beautiful or clean striker but I think it’s easy, with me, to see what’s not there. As I am in life I love to look at what is there, what you get out of me and what I can do for the team.”

Of course, it is always easier to speak with perspective following a vital winning goal and double during a Scottish Cup Semi-Final win over Hearts the week prior. With that said, it was revealing to hear the striker himself acknowledge his difficulties with perception - and why sometimes the ‘eye test’ fails him. Moreover, it is clearly not a new experience for Dessers to be written off.

When the Rangers Review was in conversation with one of the youth coaches central to Dessers’ career days later, a very similar description of the forward’s game was offered up.

“Cyriel’s qualities were not seen by everyone, he was a player who had a nose for the goal but during other parts of the game was not always obvious or visible,” says Jef Byloos, who coached Dessers immediately before his jump to professional football and witnessed his rise as a teenager.

“For some coaches, Cyriel was either ‘Good or bad’. He was not a player who played all of the game on top but was always in the right position to score. That was his strongest quality. His career has always been like this.”

READ MORE: Dessers is doubted - but he possesses the key trait needed to succeed at Rangers

Dessers, for his 20-goal season, remains something of an enigma. So, the Rangers Review spent time talking to the coaches who helped form his path and witnessed his journey to discover a story of overcoming rejection and perception to prove the doubters wrong, again and again.

Dessers’ 2023/24 season at Ibrox has proven a microcosm of his career to date. The 29-year-old endured a more difficult start at Rangers than nearly any other player in recent memory, jeered off the park at Ibrox more than once.

Since Philippe Clement took over last October, however, the Nigerian forward has earned an international recall, scored 18 goals and averaged the highest goals/90 in the league (0.72). Still, many supporters are drafting their 24/25 squads without his name in spite of that record. Even those in the likeable forward's corner concede his misgivings, but how much does Dessers’ perception inform opinion? What makes a ‘good’ footballer and are we staring at an ‘effective’ one?

Doubts are not new for Dessers and that’s why he’s managed to come back from the brink at Rangers, a club whom playing for holds so many unique pressures and privileges. His career has been a long story of rewriting the script.

Dessers grew up in the small Belgian village town of Vechmaal in the Limburg district, an area not known for its production of footballers and according to locals, home to more cows than people.

“I used to bring bread to Cyriel's parents when he was five or six. I played in the village club and they asked me if I could take the training to work with Cyriel and the others,” Hendrick Swerten tells the Rangers Review, who remains the village baker in Vechmaal’s neighbouring town of Heers.

“I coached Cyriel for two years. Given my job as a baker, I couldn’t be at the match on a Saturday so I needed others to help like my wife who knew nothing about football! Cyriel was the best of his generation in the village but he played no more than another guy for my team.

“Cyriel had so much talent, it was not normal for our village. He had gifts when he was born - he was made for making goals and that was what he lived for. His dad was also a good player although not a professional and his mum was an air hostess.

“Cyriel has always had that smile on his face. Even at the start of his time at Rangers when there were difficult moments. I saw him three or four months ago. Cyriel never forgets guys who did anything for him but I always remind him, ‘Cyriel, you’re the one who did it’. To see someone from our village get trophies, it’s beautiful.”

From Vechmaal the next step in Dessers’ footballing journey was the closest city, Tongeren. KSK Tongeren are now a fourth-division side in the Belgium footballing pyramid. As a young teenager, Dessers’ coach was Diederek Nys.

“You have the elite level in Belgium and professional clubs are at that level in the youth, then you have interprovincial level which is one step below. That’s the level Tongeren played at,” he tells the Rangers Review.

“I first remember Cyriel from when he was very, very young as a five-year-old coming to our football camps on vacation before he joined the club. My memory of that time is Cyriel lying on the floor and just trying to have fun - not very focused. Every year he came back, becoming more focused. It took time because at the beginning while you saw Cyriel had good opportunities and technique, football was not the biggest issue for him.

“Around that time, the coaches thought if he was smarter and more focused, Cyriel had all the strength to be a good football player. But at that age, he was not coachable because of his late maturity. Of all the players I have coached over 20 years, Cyriel was maybe the most difficult because he was so focused on himself and not a real team player at that age. It was a very big question if becoming a professional was possible.

“Because Cyriel was born late in the year (December 1994) he was often a year behind the other boys and taking into account his maturity that often felt like two years behind the boys he was playing with.

“Cyriel was what we call in Belgium a ‘Whispering talent’. He had some drive especially when he was motivated and of course, at a young age when he came to Tongeren on those vacation camps, his body skills were amazing and he was a good runner. There were parts of Cyriel's game you didn’t see in many other players but his maturity was a disadvantage.”

In line with Nys’ point, Dessers was a late developer - not settling at elite-level youth football until joining Leuven as a 16-year-old where he would make a singular first-team appearance three years later.

“Cyriel was very old to become a football player at the elite level and he came back to Tongeren after leaving the first time,” Nys adds. Dessers had moved to Sint-Truiden as a young teenager before being released.

“It wasn’t because he was so good that he was only focused on himself. If that was the case, Cyriel should’ve been at a bigger club even faster. Cyriel was focused on himself and focused on scoring goals. I remember that very well. Sometimes he was angry as a young player if a teammate scored a goal and he didn’t. Cyriel was really focused on that. Of course, it’s not a big issue to not be a team player at that age in hindsight, I believe players must develop themselves to help the team. Cyriel is proof you have to focus on individual development first and learning to play as a team can come at an older age.

“During Cyriel’s time at Tongeren, we were ahead of other clubs focusing on technique, taking a lot of inspiration from Johan Cruyff, always working on the left foot and the right foot. Cyriel had a lot of that technical training as a youngster and it was in becoming a man that he found his strength. You cannot underestimate how smart he is. He is a very smart guy who did very well in school and can read the game.”

As aforementioned, Dessers, aged 13, moved into elite youth football with Sint-Truiden aged, who currently ply their trade in the Belgian Pro League, top flight but not for long. A subsequent second spell at Tongeren was the deciding moment in his football career, during a time when he nearly called it quits in football.

“Cyriel had to leave Sint-Truiden,” Nys adds. “They said he was not good enough and he came back to Tongeren where he initially moved to play for the Under-21s as a 16-year-old. As he became more and more mature Cyriel made the step to our first team and then Leuven, another elite club, signed him as a professional.

“That’s when it clicked for Cyriel, when he had to leave Sint-Truiden he became more mature coming back to Tongeren. That’s how he made the next step. Cyriel had a late growth spurt while he was away with Sint-Truiden around the age of 14 and after returning to Tongeren made the jump from Under-17 football to the first team in one season. That’s when Leuven came calling, Cyriel has shown since then how much he deserves it.”

“I was never regarded as a big, big talent but this path made me stronger and who I am now. It’s not a sprint it’s a marathon and I think my career is one of the best examples of that,” was how Dessers himself put it speaking recently to UEFA.

“I became a pro footballer late and saw the other side and that’s why I try to enjoy the other side of football more. The people and the things you can see.”

It was around that time that Byloos started to work more closely with Dessers, during his second spell at Tongeren before the transfer to Leuven. Even after making it to the elite youth level, the forward’s path was not necessarily straight.

“We took Cyriel to the first team after returning,” he tells the Rangers Review.

“At that time we played in the third division and at the end of the season, Leuven came to buy him from us. He went onto start studying law at University there, he was and is a smart guy.

READ MORE: Cyriel Dessers has SPFL's best goalscoring numbers - but is he any good?

“Cyriel went to Sint-Truiden in 2007 and came back to Tongeren in 2009. 2011 was when he moved to the first team and then joined Leuven, playing in their first team once before moving to Lokeren.

“Cyriel’s qualities were not seen by everyone, he was a player who had a nose for the goal but during other parts of the game was not always obvious or visible. For some coaches, Cyriel was either ‘good or bad’. He was not a player who played all of the game on top but was always in the right position to score. That was his strongest quality. His career has always been like this.

“Even when Cyriel got to Leuven, he was considering stopping his attempts to become a professional footballer because it was difficult to break through, because of his game. Cyriel didn’t find his way in the game there and that’s when, knowing his father well, he considered whether it was time to stop. Then Lokeren came in to take Cyriel. It was only when he moved to Holland with NAC Breda two years later that Cyriel made a change in his head, realising he was capable of playing professional football.”

Dessers struggled to make an impact at Lokeren but took off after moving to the Netherlands. Playing in the Dutch second division he scored 22 goals in the 2016/17 season before moving to FC Utrecht and playing in the Eredivisie the campaign after. He then joined Heracles in 2019 and netted 15 goals in the Dutch top flight.

Dessers returned to Belgium with Genk in 2020 but it wasn’t until the following season, moving on loan to Feyenoord, that the goals returned as he became a fan favourite and finished the top scorer in the Europa Conference League.

“Cyriel went to different clubs in Belgium and Holland but it was in Holland where they saw his capabilities," adds Byloos.

"I remember going to watch him at Heracles with several friends from Tongeren and that was when you really saw the love supporters had for him. When he came back to Genk it was more like the story of other clubs, where people either thought he was good or bad. This has also been his strongest point, Cyriel has always been fighting back.

“Cyriel’s strongest point is that he has always kept believing in his qualities and always stood up after falling down. At Feyenoord, he really exploded and the crowd was really fond of him. In European games, he was their main source of goals.

“I am very happy he is now doing well with Rangers, as was the case at Feyenoord. I remember when he was playing there, at the start of his career at the club was the same. I would hear people’s criticism and say ‘Just wait, Cyriel will come back’. He did that at Feyenoord and has done that at Rangers with a Belgian trainer in Philippe Clement who knows him well. You have to believe in Cyriel then he will score.”

“I said it before and I was not just talking to talk. I know that throughout my career if I play minutes and games I am always going to score goals,” Dessers added speaking in Paisley last Sunday.

Perhaps it is no surprise he could survive and thrive after a disastrous start in Glasgow. Dessers has only reached this point by disproving doubters and fighting back, confident in his ability to win the marathon, not the sprint.

Depending on the final five games of Rangers’ season, this entry could be the best race yet in his journey.