Besiktas’ new signing Vaclav Cerny has told the Turkish media his Rangers teammate Rıdvan Yılmaz helped convince him over the move to Istanbul, after the pair worked together at Ibrox.
The Czech Republic international joined Rangers on loan from Wolfsburg last summer and was one of the standout players last season under Philippe Clement and Barry Ferguson.
His performance for Rangers in their victory over Fenerbahce brought him to the attention of Besiktas and this week the Super Lig side finally got a deal over the line.
Futbol Arena have covered the Rangers related comment, which came when the attacker was asked why he took the decision to sign for the Black Eagles.
Cerny said he spoke to current Besiktas players when deciding on the move to the Super Lig club, including his Rangers teammate.
“I talked to Orkun before I came to Besiktas. When I played in the Netherlands, we were rivals many times. I spoke with David Jurasek. He’s a close friend of mine from the Czech national team. I talked to Ridvan. We were together at Rangers last season,” said Cerny.
Cerny and Yılmaz will team up again this season following their time at Ibrox during the last campaign. For weeks, Yılmaz was linked with a return to his former club and the Istanbul club finally managed to reach an agreement with Russell Martin’s side last week.
Cerny impressed during his time with the Glasgow club, scoring 17 goals in 44 games. However, after heading back to his parent club Wolfsburg at the end of last season there were reports Rangers had been priced out of a move to bring him back to Scotland.
