I starred for Malmo in European Cup final before signing for Rangers and ended up at Pollok JUNIORS

Rangers and Malmo will clash in Sweden in their Europa League group opener on Thursday night - and both clubs are close to the heart of one man.

Former Sweden international Robert Prytz started out his career with the Scandinavians and featured in their European Cup final defeat to Nottingham Forest as a teenager before moving to Ibrox just three years later to become only the second Swede to play for the club after Orjan Persson in the late 1960s. He spent three years with the Gers between 1982 and 1985, picking up two winners' medals in the League Cup as Sir Alex Ferguson's legendary Aberdeen side dominated the domestic scene in Scotland.

After struggling to hold down a regular place under the then Rangers boss John Greig, Prytz then returned to his homeland for a spell with Malmo's rivals IFK Goteborg before spending the next seven years between 1986 and 1993 in Switzerland, Germany and Italy with Young Boys, Uerdingen 05, Atalanta and Verona.

After second spells with both Malmo and Young Boys, the former Swedish Footballer of the Year embarked on a whistle stop tour of Scotland as he winded down his career, playing for now fewer than six teams; Kilmarnock, Dumbarton, Cowdenbeath, East Fife, Hamilton and Pollock. In his two seasons with the West of Scotland Premier League club, he helped them lift a Central Sectional League Cup and West of Scotland Junior Cup double in 2000 at the age of 40 before hanging up his boots for good a year later after a brief stint with the Accies.

Despite his renown across Europe, Prytz once admitted he had spent so long away from Sweden that people had forgotten who he was on his return from Scotland. Speaking to The Times in 2011, he said: "It took awhile for people to recognise me