Rangers’ Ianis Hagi ready for ‘special’ match in city of his birth

Ianis Hagi is looking forward to a “special” Europa League tie against Fenerbahce on Thursday night.

The 26-year-old Rangers midfielder was born in Istanbul when his father, former Romania international Gheorghe Hagi, was becoming a hero at Galatasaray – finishing his playing career in the Turkish capital after winning four league titles, two national cups and the UEFA Cup before managing the club in two spells.

Hagi is aware of the significance of the first leg last-16 tie.

“It’s definitely special to come back here and play in the town where I was born,” said the Romania international, who was less open about reports that he would not be signing a new contract at Rangers.

“We have so many good memories of here as a family so it’s special and I’m going to enjoy it on Thursday night.

“We talk before and after every game so he (Gheorghe) knows how important European nights are and how tough it is to get a result away from home.

“We’ve talked about the game. He obviously knows the Turkish leagues and Turkish teams really well so I’ll definitely get some advice from him.

“But it’s just special for me to play in a place like Istanbul, it means so much to my family and I.

“It gives me extra motivation to play well on Thursday night.”

Asked about his future, Hagi said: “I don’t think it’s the right moment to talk about my future.

“My full focus right now is on Rangers and the game on Thursday. I’ve waited for a year to get back on the European stage so I’m too excited for the game to think about the future.

“It doesn’t make sense because football changes really quickly. The club and my agents have to talk about that.

“For me right now – and it’s an honest answer – I’m not really thinking about the future.

“It’s just about what I can do in this game, then it’s the next game and so on.”

Motherwell’s 2-1 win over Rangers at the weekend was a third successive home loss for the Light Blues, now guided by interim boss Barry Ferguson who took over from Philippe Clement after he was sacked the previous week after losing to St Mirren.

Hagi said: “Part of being a Rangers player is that every three or four days you have a game.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a loss or a win, you always have to be ready for the next one. It’s the same case now. Obviously the last couple of weeks haven’t been good enough for Rangers’ standard, we can all agree on that.

“A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes at the training ground trying to fix everything and I think we’re ready for this game. It will be a great challenge for us as a team considering the last couple of weeks but we’ll be ready.”