Anyone who has watched Rangers’ impressive performances this season will not have missed Borna Barisic’s displays at left-back.
The defender has once again proved to be a key player for Steven Gerrard this season, continuing to impress after a solid first season at Ibrox.
With one goal and seven assists in 18 games so far the left-back is well on course to better his tally of two goals and 14 assists from last year and continue to add to his growing reputation.
Things are working out well for the 28-year-old in Scotland, with the move to Rangers proving to be one that’s given his career a much-needed boost.
And as 24 Sata explain today, things could have been very different for him. They cover the defender’s rise today and explain that at one point he ‘almost gave up on football’.
24 Sata start by explaining that at 19 Barisic almost gave up on football after suffering a serious knee injury.
That saw him missing out on a deal with Osijek, with him instead having to ‘go around’ to find a deal, seeing an initial trial with BSK fail before they offered him a contract two months later.
He would spend six months sitting on the bench at that club, but manager Davor Rupnik ‘believed’ in him and continued to work with him on an individual basis after training, even offering him to Dinamo Zagreb. They, though, ‘just laughed’ at the proposal.
The Croatian giants would later sign Barisic but give him just one game before sending him to Lokomotiva Zagreb on loan.
That loan deal saw him pick up 11 appearances before he was ‘given a hand’ by Osijek once again, racking up 22 assists and eight goals in 124 games for the club.
Two of those games saw him coming up against Rangers in the Europa League second qualifying round in 2018 and just days later he had moved to Ibrox in a €2.2m deal.
Not before a call from Gerrard, though, who Barisic recounts called him ‘suddenly’ from an unknown number and introducing himself with the line ‘Hello my name is Steven Gerrard’.
This call ultimately ended up sealing the move, with it explained the Rangers boss wanted ‘refreshment’ at left-back after the position had ‘plagued’ the club for years.
That is certainly what he got, with Barisic an undisputed success since and proving to be very much the answer to his problems.
