RANGERS Soccer Academies have just launched their fantastic summer holiday courses, with an incredible 50 programmes running across Scotland and further 15 camps taking place in Northern Ireland.
It really is the perfect place to learn and play the Rangers way, and now, you can follow in the footsteps of a league champion!
Leon King’s first steps on the road to being a part of the team which lifted 55 began as a five year-old at a Rangers Soccer Academy camp, and after making an impression there, he was selected to join an elite centre before being picked up by the Academy.
That same opportunity for both boys and girls, as well as outfield players and goalkeepers, is extended to every player who signs up to be part of a Rangers Soccer Academy event.
King’s journey to joining the Rangers first-team as they produced what will go down as some of the most iconic images in the club’s history is an incredible one, and he explained: "I first went to one of the Rangers Soccer Camps when I was five across the road from Ibrox at the Ibrox Complex.
“You were always thinking then, ‘I’m here now but where I want to be is across the road in the stadium in front of all the fans.’
“Being a Rangers fan, you dream when you are a wee guy of playing for Rangers and after the Soccer Academies, I was picked to go to the elite centre at Auchenhowie on a Sunday night. It means so much to me and so much to my family that I am still here 10/11 years later.
“Kieran Reilly and Alan Boyd picked me to go to the Elite Centre, and then from there, I moved into the Academy.”
While King was to progress upwards, the courses really do cater for all ages and all abilities, and he continued: “It wasn’t so much training – it was all about going out there and enjoying your football in small-sided games with people from your area.
“It was amazing, and for a wee boy at that age, it was such a good opportunity and a chance to go and show Rangers what you could do.” That ‘Rangers way’ that is played from the very youngest Academy teams right through to the first-team is also matched within the Rangers Soccer Academies.
King feels that stood him in good stead when he moved onto the Academy, and said: “When I went to the Academy, I didn’t know any of the boys, but everyone played the same way and everybody knew what they were doing.
“The camps must be doing something right as all the boys knew exactly what they were doing at the Academy.”
King is now determined for his journey to continue further, with more first-team appearances and more honours to add to the medal he already has.
As a Rangers supporter, however, to be a part of the celebrations on May 15 as Gers wrapped up an unbeaten season was a phenomenal experience – and one he is still coming to terms with.
“It has probably still not sunk in given I am so young and I probably didn’t realise at the time what was happening.
“When you are a kid, you dream of getting into squads for the Europa League, getting on the park for the first-team and winning the league, but when it actually happens, you are taken aback a little bit. “It was a surreal moment.
“It means so much to so many more people than what I thought it would have and growing up a Rangers fan and never really remembering Rangers being that triumphant and winning the league so comfortably.
“It was a lot better than I expected it to feel like and a feeling that you can’t really describe.”
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