Not good enough – The insane academy decision that almost ended Cyriel Dessers’ career

Cyriel Dessers’ football journey could have ended before it even started, Footynaija.com understands.

As a teenager, he was rejected by Sint-Truiden, as the team did not consider him good enough.

After the rejection from Sint-Truiden, he joined KVC Westerlo and worked his way up through clubs in Belgium and the Netherlands. Things, however, did not get easier when he moved to Leuven, either.

“I was never regarded as a big, big talent” he once revealed in an interview.

At Leuven, the coach there did not give him a first-team chance, despite Dessers showing great promise in the second team.

Hans Vander Elst, who worked at Leuven and saw Dessers in his early days, recalls how tough this was.

In another interview with the Scottish Sun, Vander Elst said,

[Cyriel] was really strong with a great mentality, great character as well as being such a nice guy. But he was also missing a lot of chances.”

We had a lot of discussions about it at the club even when he was 16 and playing with the second team.”

But Dessers was not about to let these setbacks hold him back. He kept working hard and eventually moved to Heracles Almelo.

His breakthrough came at the Dutch club, where he netted 18 goals in 29 appearances, a stat that bigger clubs could not ignore.

With that form, he earned himself a move to Feyenoord, and soon after, Rangers came calling. And when Dessers arrived at Ibrox in 2023, he had a point to prove.

Some doubted whether he could handle the pressure of leading the line for one of Scotland’s biggest clubs. But so far in the 2024/25 season, he has silenced the critics.

Dessers has racked up 23 goals despite spending a fair amount of time on the sidelines under Coach Phillipe Clement.

In January 2025, he produced a masterclass in the Scottish Cup against Fraserburgh, scoring a hat-trick and setting up another goal in a 5-0 win.

It was a performance that summed up his game—not just a finisher, but a player who can create and lead the attack.

His impact is not just felt in Scotland. In the same month, he came on as a substitute and scored a brilliant goal against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Europa League. This goal was voted Rangers’ Men’s Goal of the Month.

These were not just any goals, they were moments that showed his class on the big stage.

March 2025 brought another huge milestone for the Nigerian international. Dessers made his 100th appearance for Rangers, and he celebrated it in the best way possible by scoring a last-minute winner against Dundee F. C.

That goal took his tally to 45 for the club, putting him among Rangers’ top scorers of the 21st century, alongside names like Kris Boyd, Alfredo Morelos, and Shota Arveladze.

His stats prove just how important he has become. With a 17% conversion rate, he is even more clinical than Morelos, who had 14%. He averages a goal every 138 minutes, showing that whenever he is on the pitch, he is a constant threat.

Looking back, Vander Elst is proud of how far Dessers has come.

“sometimes when I see ex-coaches from those days or somebody from the club’s board I say, ‘Hey, remember Cyriel? Look at where he is now and you didn’t want to give him a new contract and you didn’t want to play him’”, he said.