Abdallah Sima's rise to Rangers thanks to marathon man's hard yards in Prague as former boss predicts big things

Abdallah Sima was never going to hang around for his career to take off - not when the winger is blessed with the kind of pace that makes defenders go weak at the knees.

But the Brighton star’s ability to make an instant impression on former boss Jindrich Trpisovsky before he’d kicked a ball at senior level stunned even the hardened Slavia Prague manager who admits the story of Sima’s rise knocked him off his feet.

Pace, power and the magic to beat his man one on one is what has taken the now 22-year-old from Senegal to the Seagulls via Slavia and with loan stop offs at Stoke and Angers as well. And it’s those characteristics which have rocketed the speed merchant to the top of Rangers’ summer transfer plans two years on from his standout show for Slavia over two legs of their volatile 2-0 Europa League victory over the Light Blues.

Trpisovsky admits he took a gamble in signing the then 19-year-old from minnows Sion Taborsko in 2020 after seeing him score twice in a friendly against his own side’s B team. Sima hadn’t even played a competitive match for Taborsko at that point.

But even though the outbreak of Covid meant his Slavia career stalled before it had got started, Sima was still blowing his new boss away with his footwork. Namely the fact he pounded an incredible 150 miles - almost six marathons - in just two weeks while the footballing world went into lockdown.

Of more interest to the Ibrox faithful will be the 6ft 2in forward’s numbers on the pitch though. A goal in his first start in Europe, a double in his first taste of the volatile Prague derby with Sparta and a red-hot sequence of 14 strikes in as many games midway through his first season saw Sima’s valuation rocket in tandem with his reputation.

Trpisovsk