Jermain Defoe grateful for Rangers goodbye chance as mum knew he'd fall in love after just 90 minutes

It took Jermain Defoe’s mum just 90 minutes of Old Firm action to work out why her son had fallen in love with life in Glasgow.

But the former Rangers star admits it will take far longer to get over his sudden departure from a club he had taken to his heart. It’s just over a year since Defoe called time on his three-year Gers stint, slipping out the door with barely a chance to say goodbye after a failed experiment combining playing and coaching left the veteran poacher questioning his hunger for goals and action.

A brief return to former club Sunderland followed but even in those familiar surroundings, the 40-year-old admits there was no replicating the buzz that pulling on a blue jersey could offer - a buzz that even his mum Sandra could appreciate. “My mum has come to almost every game I’ve played in and she’s been everywhere, at every club,” said Defoe.

“I remember we played here in my first Old Firm and she said to me, ‘You know what, I now know why you love it here'. She said she’d never experienced anything like it. All the games she’d come to, and I played about 800 games, and she said it was unbelievable - ‘I now understand why you love it’.

“If my mum says that, then it must be a special place. (So leaving) was difficult to be honest.

“When you go from the high that I had here, winning the league title - and 55 was arguably one of the most important titles in the club’s entire history. But after that it’s really difficult to have that feeling. I knew I was at the back end of my career but I felt like a kid again when I came to Rangers.

“I got that fire back. I’d come from Bournemouth and I got that fire back because I knew every game was important. I had to win every game. Every training session for me was