Ex-England forward backs Cyriel Dessers to win prestigious award over Celtic, Heart stars

Cyriel Dessers was the highest goalscorer in the Scottish Premier League in the 2024/2025 season…

Former England and Southampton striker Matt Le Tissier has backed Rangers star Cyriel Dessers to win the Scottish Premiership’s Player of the Year award this season, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 30-year-old forward has scored 52 goals and provided 14 assists in 115 games for the Record Scottish Champions.

Dessers also won the SPFL Golden Boot last season, but surprisingly, he wasn't nominated for the Player of the Year Award.

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Three Celtic players were nominated in Callum McGregor, Daizen Maeda, and Nicolas Kuhn. The other nominee was Dundee's Simon Murray.

The only Rangers player nominated for an award was Moroccan youngster Hamza Igamane, who stepped in when Dessers had a poor stint in front of goal. The forward got recognised in the young player of the year section.

Le Tissier backs Dessers for success

Considering he scored the most goals in the league, Le Tissier was stunned that the Belgium-born Nigerian forward didn't get a nominee spot.

Still, the 56-year-old believes Dessers can be third-time lucky, and backed the former Cremonese man to win the award in the coming season.

“It’s a fair chance it’s going to be a Celtic player, but then you’ve got people like Lawrence Shankland, who scores a lot of goals.

“He’s obviously going to be in and amongst the top scorers for the season.

“You look at those guys that are scoring all the goals, they're the ones that get the headlines, and when the trophies start being handed out, they’re normally at the top of the list.

“The other one for me was Cyril Dessers, who I think is a decent goal-scorer.

“I think if he gets on a roll, he could quite easily be challenging the top goal-scorer up in Scotland, and if you are in that battle, then you’re normally in the running for Player of the Season as well,” the former England striker told Football Insider.

Le Tissier's words will come as a form of encouragement to Dessers, who's always gotten a divided response from the Rangers fans due to his inconsistency in front of goal, despite having the numbers to make up for it.

On the flip side, it could be a different story when the transfer window slams shut, as the Nigerian is open to leaving Ibrox after just two years.

In the meantime, the former Feyenoord man is nursing an ankle injury he sustained in a clash against Viktoria Plzen.

His absence was felt last night as Rangers suffered a home defeat to Club Brugge in the UEFA Champions League Qualifiers.