According to the latest reports from the Scottish Sun, Rangers have brought New Zealand international Stefan Marinovic on a week-long trial at Ibrox. The 27-year-old goalkeeper has 24 caps for the Kiwis, and he last played for MLS outfit Vancouver Whitecaps.
Rangers have the best goalkeeper in the Premiership in the form of Allan McGregor. As a backup, Steven Gerrard can call upon the services of Wes Foderingham who is only behind the pecking order because he is competing with someone like McGregor. Apart from that, the Bears also have Robby McCrorie at their disposal. So one can say they are well covered in the goalkeeping department at the moment.
However, Gerrard might be preparing for a situation where someone like Foderingham is sold in the summer. There is no doubt that McGregor would continue as the no. 1 in goal and Rangers can get decent money out of selling Foderingham who has served the club well on previous occasions. Foderingham was even linked (Leeds Live) with a move to Leeds United but it is unlikely to go through now after the English team signed Kiko Casilla from Real Madrid.
Marinovic failed at a trial with Everton when he was an u-19 international with New Zealand, and up until joining Vancouver Whitecaps, the 27-year-old had spent most of his playing time in the lower divisions of Germany. He turned out for teams like SV Wehen Wiesbaden, FC Ismaning, Unterhaching and 1860 Munich II.
His impressive performance with Unterhaching earned him a move to the MLS where the 6ft3 goalkeeper was a regular starter. The custodian would definitely want to impress at Rangers, and this could be the most significant break of his career as he might get to play in some Elite European competition by next season.
Steven Gerrard had earlier brought (Daily Mail) the likes of Matt Polster and Andrew Gutman on trial from MLS clubs. Incidentally, Gutman went on to join (Sky Sports) Celtic later on which came as a surprise to many as it was Gerrard who gave him the chance to impress in Glasgow.
We don’t really see Marinovic replacing or being an upgrade over McGregor and it is likely that Gerrard is seeing him as a second or third choice option at the moment. The good thing is that Marinovic has a decent amount of experience and is also an international for his country. It remains to be seen whether he would be able to impress Gerrard into offering him a deal at Ibrox.
