FEW players have given Rangers supporters more pleasure than the Great Dane, Brian Laudrup.
Most Rangers fans feel privileged that he spent the best years of his career at Ibrox and many of them will tell you that there has never been a more exciting and talented player to have pulled on a Light Blue shirt. It is difficult to argue with them. Laudrup was utterly exceptional. His sublime skills, electric pace and shooting power took Rangers to a new level.
The Dane was utterly devasting during his four years with Rangers, single-handedly destroying teams on numerous occasions with his fantastic close control, electrifying pace and uncanny ability to deliver the killer pass or cross. His close control was extraordinary – the ball just obeyed his wishes.
His exceptional acceleration saw him tearing through midfield and releasing a pass, while leaving himself time to be in for the kill as he reached an entirely different area of the pitch. He was the complete master, terrifying defences any time he was anywhere near the ball. Premier League opponents had no answer to his skills.
Laudrup, though Danish, was born in Vienna on 22 February 1969, and seemed destined to become a footballer. His father Finn was a Danish international and his elder brother, Michael, was also a world-class player, starring for Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid among others. By the time he arrived at Ibrox, Brian had already been an important member of the Danish team that caused such an upset by winning the 1992 European Championships.
His professional career began at Brondby where he played in the same team as Peter Schmeichel. He played there for three years before being transferred to Uerdingen in Germany for £650,000.
After one season, Bayern Munich paid £2 million for his signature and his reputation continued to grow, prompting Fiorentina to equal that fee to take him to Italy in 1992. Laudrup, however, was not happy in Florence and when Fiorentina were relegated in 1993, he was loaned out to Italian giants AC Milan.
In July 1994, Rangers, already with six League titles in a row, tabled a bid of £2.3 million for him. The price turned out to be a snip. From his first game, against Motherwell on 13 August, it was clear that the Danish attaker was a sensational capture.
First he supplied the inch-perfect cross for Mark Hateley to score with a header. Then, in an audacious move, he collected a clearance from a corner on the edge of his own box and ran diagonally through midfield before releasing a pass for Duncan Ferguson to notch the second.
One thing that is guaranteed to endear a player to the Rangers fans is to star in matches against Celtic. Laudrup, involved in some of the most important Old Firm games in living memory, not only starred in them, he often destroyed the opponents.
He played in 17 Old Firm games in total, winning nine, drawing four and losing four, of which was an unimportant end of season League clash as the title had already been secured.
Laudrup was a loser on his Old Firm debut but he soon made up for it. In his second game against Celtic he was sensational and the abiding memory is the Danish star racing away to score the third goal in a 3-1 win.
He said, "That game was at Hampden and it was one to remember. Had lost my Old Firm debut, which was disappointing, but I was delighted to do well in the second one.
"For any foreign player coming to play in Glasgow, the first thing you hear about is the Old Firm game and it is undoubtedly one of the greatest derbies in the world. I loved playing in these games because the atmosphere was always electric and the stakes were so high."
Laudrup was also the scorer in the classic 3-3 draw with Tommy Burns’ Celtic side in November 1995 when he netted the first goal. However, it was the strike in the Scottish Cup semi-final the following April which was probably his finest.
He flicked the ball to Gordon Durie on the right wing, and raced over the advancing Gordon Marshall to score Rangers’ second and clinching goal in a game which finished 2-1.
In the final he reached even greater heights. Laudrup scored twice and set up all three goals for a Durie hat-trick, the first scored by a Ranger in the Scottish Cup final, in the 5-1 demolition of Hearts. It was one of the most breathtaking individual performances ever seen at the national stadium and has certainly never been bettered since.
He also scored two crucial goals against Celtic in the 1996/97 season – on his way to becoming the club’s top scorer that year – as Rangers battled to achieve the club’s ninth championship in a row.
The first came at Parkhead in November when he capitalised on Brian O’Neil’s slip to crack home a 25-yarder for the only goal of the game. But there was more to come.
He recalled, "We went to Parkhead again in March 1997 and we knew that if we won that day then it would be a massive step towards the title.
"Durranty flicked the ball over Stewart Kerr and I’m still not quite sure if it was in before I touched it, but the main thing was we won that game and that was so crucial."
However, it was at Tannadice against Dundee United on 7 May 1997 that Laudrup scored the sweetest goal of all. There were those who said that he couldn’t head the ball, but that day he ran into the box, flew through the air to meet Charlie Miller’s cross, and the ball hit the net like a bullet.
It was the goal that won the nine-in-a-row title, and there could have been no more fitting player to score it. He said, ‘It was a magical moment and one of so many during my time with Rangers.’
He received any number of accolades that spring, and was voted the Scottish Football Writers’ Player of the Year for the second time in three years, having become the first foreign player to be awarded in honour in 1995.
Ajax wanted to sign him that summer but he was persuaded to stay as Rangers attempted to clinch an unprecedented tenth successive title but it was an anti-climax. The Light Blues stumbled into the final matches and Celtic stopped the championship run on the final day of the season.
Laudrup left in the summer of 1998 for Chelsea, before moving on to Copenhagen, and finally to Ajax, where he was forced to quit football through injury in 2000 at the age of 31.
There is no doubt he was one of the most gifted and talented entertainers in the club’s history and few players have brought so much joy to Rangers supporters in such a short period of time.
RangersTV subscribers can now watch all the below or you can purchase a RangersTV subscription starting from £6 here to enjoy content like this and more.