Rangers manager Michael Beale has confirmed the club’s pursuit of Los Angeles’ Jose Cifuentes and Feyenoord’s Danilo.
Following back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Scottish Premiership, the Gers have flown out of the traps in the summer transfer window, keen to whittle down a significant gap on arch-rivals Celtic.
Beale has already added seven players to the squad he inherited from Giovanni van Bronckhorst midway through the 2022/23 campaign as he prepares for his first full season in charge.
Cyriel Dessers, Sam Lammers and Abdallah Sima have been the club’s most notable signings, but Rangers have shown no signs of shutting down their recruitment programme.
In an interview with Sky Sports Scotland, Beale acknowledged a verbal agreement with Cifuentes to join his squad upon the expiry of his contract in Los Angeles in December.
However, he also admitted Rangers are pushing hard to complete the 24-year-old’s arrival in the current transfer window despite facing firm resilience from the Major League Soccer franchise.
“He’s out of contract at the end of the year, and we have an agreement for that,” he said.
“We would like to bring it to a close early if we can so he can join us in this window. Those discussions are ongoing.”
The 16-capped Ecuador international left Universidad Catolita in his home country to link up with Los Angeles in January 2020 and has made 121 appearances for the MLS side since.
But after agreeing on personal terms with Rangers, he seems ready to launch a European career.
Feyenoord’s Danilo has been around for years, spending his entire senior career in the Eredivisie.
He started at Ajax before moving to De Kuip in 2022, penning a four-year contract.
The 24-year-old forward wasn’t Arne Slot’s first-choice centre-forward last season, but he still helped Feyenoord win the Dutch championship for the first time since 2017.
After netting 14 times in 48 competitive matches for the Eredivisie champions, the Brazilian could leave the Netherlands after six years to pledge his allegiance to Rangers.
“There’s talks in the background on that one, but he’s Feyenoord’s player,” Beale replied when asked about his interest in Danilo.
“They’re building after a really successful campaign last year, so we’ll keep that between the two clubs at the moment. He’s obviously a good player.”
