Rangers snap up Manchester City winger
Rangers announced today that they have secured the services of Manchester City’s Vladimir Weiss. The 20-year-old winger has joined Walter Smith’s side on a season-long loan.
The Slovakian, who featured for his country at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, turned down offers from Stuttgart, Sampdoria and Rangers’ Old Firm rivals Celtic to ply his trade at Ibrox stadium this season. He goes straight into the first-team squad and is in line to make his debut against Hibernian at Easter Road on Sunday in the league.
Weiss told the Rangers official website of his delight at joining the club and revealed that Rangers’ participation in the UEFA Champions league this season helped him decide to play in the blue half of Glasgow. He said that: "As soon as I got this offer I was really interested. I aim to do my best and hopefully we will have a good season. Celtic came in for me first but then Rangers came in and when I looked through all of the offers that I had I picked Rangers. The fact that Rangers are in the Champions League was obviously a big incentive for me. Every player wants to play in the Champions League so it's a great opportunity for me.”
The winger has only made five appearances to date for City after coming through the youth ranks at the club. Weiss made his debut in the last English Premier League match of the 2008-09 season against Bolton Wanderers. He scored his only goal for the club in a 3-0 win over Arsenal in the League Cup. In January, he moved to Bolton on loan for the remainder of the season and made 13 appearances, mostly as a substitute.
Weiss has featured prominently for Slovakia over the last year after making his debut in a 1-1 draw in a friendly with Iceland. He also started in three of his country’s matches in South Africa as they made it to the second round before crashing out to eventual runners-up Holland.
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