Money lost: An “exciting” talent who made more ruined the Rangers

Before leaving Glasgow in January, the £1.2 million signing was unable to leave his impact.

When Glasgow Rangers let former head coach Michael Beale to approve a number of departures and signings, they completely rebuilt their playing roster the previous summer.

The departure of players such as Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos, Glen Kamara, Antonio Colak, and Scott Arfield—either on free transfers or for fees—made room for new players.
To expand his options throughout the park, Beale pounced on Abdallah Sima, Jack Butland, Jose Cifuentes, Kieran Dowell, Dujon Sterling, Danilo, Cyriel Dessers, Sam Lammers, and Leon Balogun.

The Scottish powerhouses fired the English manager at the beginning of October because those additions did not produce the expected results on the field under his method.

He was succeeded in the dugout by Belgian tactician Philippe Clement, who has already won his first title with the team after defeating Aberdeen in the League Cup final.

The fact that two of Beale’s nine new additions were permitted to go on loan during the January transfer window was a scathing indictment on some of his deals.

After Cifuentes, who makes more money than Sima, humiliated the Gers at Ibrox, Clement permitted Cifuentes to move to Brazil and join Cruzeiro.

Amount paid by the Rangers to sign José Cifuentes

For a projected £1.2 million in the summer of 2023, the Scottish team pounced to recruit the Colombian central midfielder from MLS team Los Angeles FC on a four-year contract.

Beale called the young dynamo “exciting” and said he needed to prove himself on the field at Ibrox shortly after the transfer was official.

When he joined LAFC in January 2020 from CD Universidad Católica back home, he had already made 121 appearances for the team.
Rangers had some red flags before he moved to Scotland, though, as his performance in the Major League Soccer had declined from the 2022 to the 2023 season.

The table above illustrates how Cifuentes’ 2022 season performances were significantly better than his 2023 performances prior to his departure to Ibrox.

Along with improved defensive performance, he offered more of a danger up top as he made more tackles and gave up less opportunities for opponents to dribble past him.

In retrospect, Beale ought to have seen his diminishing performance for LAFC. Nevertheless, the English strategist might have believed that with his guidance and strategies at Rangers, he could return the midfield player to peak form.

Regretfully, Cifuentes struggled during the first half of the 2023–24 season and did not get off to a strong start with Rangers before leaving the team on loan in January of this year.

The Rangers’ Jose Cifuentes stats

Before going on loan to Cruzeiro in February, the 25-year-old failure made over £400k in earnings over the course of about 27 weeks in Glasgow, according to Salary Sport.

This indicates that the central midfielder cost Rangers almost £1.6 million during his seven months of employment. It’s unclear how much, if any, of the player’s salary is being paid for since he’s currently on loan.

He is now under loan to the Brazilian team until December of this year, with the possibility to extend the agreement for an additional cost in order to make it permanent until the January transfer window of 2025.

Rangers may be hoping Cruzeiro will eventually exercise that option given his brief stay in Glasgow in order to recover a portion of the money they have already squandered on him.

During the first half of the season, Cifuentes made 20 appearances for the Gers in all competitions under Beale and Clement, including nine games in the Scottish Premiership.

The Colombian international found it difficult to adapt to the physical style of Scottish football, as evidenced by the table above, where he lost most of his duels and was outmuscled by opposition defenders as he tried to dribble his way out of danger.

In the Europa League group stages, the Rangers midfielder lost an incredible 62% of his duels across five matches, underscoring his difficulties with the roughness of the game while wearing a Light Blues shirt.

The salary of Abdallah Sima with the Rangers

Sima now makes less than the midfielder and has been an excellent player for the team this season, while Cifuentes ruined the club on £16k per week with poor performances in the middle of the park, which caused Clement to approve an exit in January.

The Senegal international is paid £8.5k per week by Salary Sport; however, it is unclear how much he receives from Rangers and his parent club Brighton & Hove Albion. That means that during those 27 weeks, he made slightly more than £200k, while the former LAFC star made more than £400k.

Sima has been a standout player for the Gers this season under both Beale and Clement, even though he is paid far less than Cifuentes.

In the Scottish Premiership, the loanee of the Seagulls, who has scored ten goals in fifteen starts, is just ahead of Dessers (12) and James Tavernier (14).

In 33 appearances for the team across all competitions, the 22-year-old wizard has notched up 15 goals and two assists, including three goals (from 2.0 xG) in six starts in the Europa League.