QPR player reveals how close he came to signing fresh deal with Rangers last summer | OneFootball

QPR defender Leon Balogun was hoping to get the chance to re-sign with Rangers in the summer but has revealed there was no contact with the Scottish club on the subject after his departure.

The centre-back was released when his contract at Ibrox expired at the end of the 2021/22 campaign, bringing to an end a three-year spell in Glasgow that saw him feature 65 times in total, and has since moved to the Championship.

He didn’t sign for the R’s until late August, however, and, speaking on the Beautiful Game podcast, has revealed that he was hoping he might get the chance to re-sign for Rangers before he joined the Loftus Road outfit.

Pressed on whether he could have rejoined the Scottish club, he said:  “No, I don’t think actually there was a chance.

“I was hoping for it but at the same time, I think the manager [van Bronckhorst] beforehand had made up his mind about my persona so I don’t think there was a chance.

“I stayed in Glasgow until the end of August. My tenancy ended on the 1st of September.  I can’t lie, even at home, me and my missus were like ‘yeah maybe there is a chance’. We were hoping for it.

“Especially seeing that they did struggle at my position with injuries and stuff, I was like maybe, maybe, maybe. Obviously, I enjoyed still being there but at the same time, it didn’t help.”

He added: “It made it really tough because all this time I was thinking ‘maybe there’s a little chance, maybe there’s a little chance’ but I’ve never been in touch after [with the club].

“I met Ross Wilson once again after because he allowed me to keep myself fit and use their facilities. I only did it twice though because it wouldn’t have felt right to be around the boys, but yeah that was that whole chapter pretty much.

“It was tough, really tough, I think you could tell from the message I wrote on my socials that it was really close to my heart the whole thing.”

Mick Beale was the manager that brought Balogun to W12 but he has since left the west London club to replace van Bronkhorst at Rangers in a controversial move.

Balogun’s side are back in Championship action for the first time in around a month on Sunday as they face league leaders Burnley.

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The Verdict

It seems Balogun would have been open to re-signing for Rangers in the summer but such a move was never truly on the cards.

R’s fans may well be getting sick of people discussing their strong links to Ibrox but to be fair to the defender, this interview took place before Beale made the switch.

It was Beale that brought the defender to Loftus Road but it looks unlikely that the Nigeria international would be a target in January.

He is 34 now and the Rangers hierarchy weren’t keen on re-signing him in the summer.