Cyriel Dessers, the Belgian striker born 8th December 1994, stands 6ft tall, and at a solid 12st 8lb, finds himself lost in the Highlands, playing for the Rangers Football Club. Our friends at Rangers bestowed him with the mighty number 9 jersey, a choice one can only assume was made with a good sense of humour.
Back in the tiresome 2023-2024 season, Dessers managed to scrape together a passable performance, warming the bench for a grand total of eight games. He graced the football field 27 times as a striker and ended up notching 16 goals. When he wasn't catching his breath on the bench, he participated in the Scottish Cup, managing three goals in four displays of lukewarm action, as well as making a one-goal contribution to their average Europa League antics over seven games.
In the subsequent 2024-2025 season, Dessers appears to have gone missing in action. His shirt hasn't left the peg in the dressing room all season, it seems. The previous season saw him on the field 35 times, mustering 16 goals for his efforts.
Casting our minds back to before this Rangers episode, Dessers put on a show in sunny Italy. Plying his trade at Cremonese, he managed 26 outings alongside an uninspiring six-goal tally in his 2022-2023 season. Prior to this Italian escapade, he hopped around Belgium and the Netherlands. His Belgian stint at Genk tallied three first team appearances with an equal amount of goals, all packed into the 2022-2023 season.
The 2021-2022 season saw Dessers making an appearance in Dutch football, turning out 27 times for Feyenoord and netting nine goals. This was sandwiched by another season at Genk the previous year with 28 matches and a close-to-mediocre four-goal total.
Preceding this was yet another brief foray into Dutch football with Heracles Almelo in the 2019-2020 season. This endeavour saw 26 matches and a more palatable 15-goal haul. The Dutch adventures continued the following year at FC Utrecht. Making himself known 29 times in the 2017-2018 season, Dessers chalked up nine goals to his name, followed by a quieter period the following season with 11 appearances and three goals.
Dropping further into history, Dessers enjoyed a fruitful time at NAC Breda. The 36 matches during the 2016-2017 season saw him pierce the net a notable 22 times. He then found modest fame with KSC Lokeren in Belgium, where he was known by his shadow more than anyone else, slipping through the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons with 15 and 10 appearances respectively.
Everything kicked off for Dessers back in the 2013-2014 season with Oud-Heverlee Leuven. His career spotlight flickered on for the first time during one entire match. He hardly set the world on fire, but as they say, mighty oaks from little acorns grow, or so Swords believes they do.
