Rangers Target Bouanani to Boost Attack Amidst Title Chase
Rangers are moving quickly to solve a glaring problem in their frontline, and Badredine Bouanani is the man they believe can light up the right-hand side of their attack.
According to the Rangers Review, the 21-year-old VfB Stuttgart winger is undergoing a medical ahead of a season-long loan to Ibrox, with an €18m buy option attached. With only hours left in the window, the deal is at the stage where only a late hitch would prevent an announcement.
For a club already playing catch-up in the title race and nursing European scars, this is a swing with intent.
From Lille streets to Stuttgart – and now Glasgow calling
Born in Lille, Bouanani came through the academy at LOSC Lille, progressing through the youth system and featuring for the reserves in the 2021-22 season. He was once a French youth international at multiple age groups, but in 2023 he chose Algeria, collecting five senior caps so far.
His club career has moved quickly. He left Lille on a Bosman to join Nice, initially dropping into their youth ranks before forcing his way into sporadic Ligue 1 appearances. A loan at Lorient followed, then a more prominent role in the 2024-25 campaign that pushed his value into a new bracket.
Stuttgart paid around €15m to bring him to the Bundesliga last summer. On paper, it looked like the next logical step for one of French football’s emerging wide talents.
Reality bit harder. He made 28 appearances across competitions but spent most of them coming off the bench. Two goals, two assists. Glimpses, not a statement season.
Stuttgart need him to play. Bouanani needs somewhere to spread his wings. Rangers need exactly his profile.
The move fits.
Rangers’ need for a right-sided threat
Derek McInnes has already seen his first European campaign with Rangers unravel. The club crashed out of both the Europa League and Conference League qualifiers, stripping the season back to domestic business before August had truly settled.
Celtic, relentless so far, have opened up a five-point lead at the top of the Premiership, winning every league game to this point. Rangers have responded with back-to-back victories over Aberdeen and Falkirk, but the performances have not fully convinced.
There’s effort. There’s structure. What’s missing is sustained imagination in the final third.
Lawrence Shankland has rediscovered his touch in front of goal, yet the support around him has been patchy. On the right, neither Findlay Curtis nor Daisuke Yokota has nailed down the role. Yokota has arrived with promise, but Rangers have long been in the market for another left-footed right winger, having also been linked with Brighton & Hove Albion youngster Amario Cozier-Duberry.
Bouanani fits that brief almost to the letter: a left-footer who prefers to start wide on the right, step inside, and ask questions defenders don’t enjoy answering.
What Bouanani actually brings
Bouanani’s game is built on acceleration and audacity. He’s quick over the first few yards, sharp in tight spaces, and confident enough to take on his full-back one-on-one rather than constantly recycling possession.
He likes to drive infield, cut inside onto his stronger foot and either shoot or slide passes into the box. When he holds his width, his overlapping crosses carry purpose rather than panic. There is composure to his decision-making in the final third, even if the raw numbers at Stuttgart never quite reflected that.
For Rangers, that profile matters. Too often their play around the box has looked predictable, easy to funnel away from danger. A winger who can break a defensive line with a feint or a burst, not just a pass, changes the geometry of games.
His versatility only strengthens the case. The Algerian is comfortable operating centrally as well as off the flank, happy to drift into pockets behind the striker and link play. In McInnes’ preferred 4-2-3-1, that flexibility is gold.
A reshaped attacking unit
The pieces around him are already shifting. The club have allowed Thelo Aasgaard to leave on loan for Anderlecht, a move made easier by the arrival of Kim Min-Su. The South Korean has been used primarily as a ‘number 10’, but he can also operate from the left, giving McInnes options behind the lone ‘number 9’.
Add Bouanani to that mix and the picture behind Shankland changes again. Kim between the lines, Bouanani driving in off the right, a rotating cast on the left – it suddenly looks like an attacking band with variation rather than repetition.
Rangers do not have Europe to worry about this year. They do have a gap to close on a Celtic side that has started with ruthless efficiency. An €18m buy option on a 21-year-old international winger is a bold marker of where they believe the difference can be made.
If the medical goes to plan and the paperwork lands in time, Bouanani will walk into a club that needs his fearlessness as much as his feet.
Now it’s over to him to turn a smart-looking deal into something that genuinely shifts a title race.
