Inside ‘explosive’ Hamza Igamane’s road to Rangers story as mentor predicts going from no-mark to superstar status

When Sven Vandenbroeck first fast-tracked a teenage Hamza Igamane into his top team, even the academy coaching staff at ASFAR Rabat weren’t sure if the youngster would ever cut it.

Three years later almost all of Morocco now is hoping the Rangers new boy could be on the verge of becoming the nation’s next superstar. Belgian coach Vandenbroeck plucked Igamane straight out of the youth ranks towards the end of his first season at the north African club in 2021, when the striker was playing three years above his age level with the club’s under 20s.

And ASFAR ended up reaping the rewards when Philippe Clement splashed out a fee of almost £2m to lure Igamane to Glasgow in the summer. The Ibrox boss then raised eyebrows when he revealed the new recruit wasn’t even ready to train with his first team when the season began.

But Igamane was finally unleashed from Clement’s bench in a 3-0 derby thumping at Celtic at the start of this month and the 21-year-old backed up that lively derby day cameo with a highly impressive run-out as a sub against Dundee United on Sunday.

The Moroccan is now being tipped to make his first start for his new club on Saturday, when Ibrox reopens for a Premier Sports Cup quarter final clash with Dundee. Amidst a gloomy early season for Clement’s side, the youngster’s sudden emergence is being seized upon as a rare and much needed chink of light.

And none of it has come as much of a surprise to Vandenbroeck who spotted Igamane’s potential before anyone else in Igamane’s football daft homeland had noticed. Speaking exclusively to Record Sport the Zulte Waregem manager recalled: “In the beginning not everyone was convinced about him - in the club and even the youth academy.

"They were not always