Cyriel Dessers

Cyriel Dessers

Dessers with Utrecht in 2017
Personal information
Full name	Cyriel Kolawole Dessers [1]
Date of birth	(1994-12-08) 8 December 1994 (age 29)
Place of birth	Tongeren, Belgium
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Team information
Current team	Rangers
Number	9
Youth career
	FC De Zwaluw Vechmaal
	Union FC Rutten
	K.S.K. Tongeren
	Sint-Truiden
0000–2011	K.S.K. Tongeren
2011–2014	OH Leuven
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2014	OH Leuven	1	(0)
2014–2016	Lokeren	32	(4)
2016–2017	NAC Breda	36	(22)
2017–2019	FC Utrecht	40	(12)
2019–2020	Heracles Almelo	26	(15)
2020–2022	Genk	38	(10)
2021–2022	→ Feyenoord (loan)	27	(9)
2022–2023	Cremonese	26	(6)
2023–	Rangers	30	(13)
International career‡
2020–	Nigeria	6	(2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 23:00, 17 April 2024 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23:31, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

Cyriel Kolawole Dessers (born 8 December 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Scottish Premiership club Rangers. Born in Belgium, he plays for the Nigeria national team.

Dessers has spent the majority of his club career playing in Belgian and Dutch football. He was the top scorer in the Eredivisie in the 2019–20 season, while playing for Heracles Almelo. He was the top scorer in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League and was named in the competition's Team of the Season, while playing for Feyenoord.

Dessers qualified to play for Nigeria at international level because of his Nigerian mother. He made his senior international debut in October 2020.

Club career

OH Leuven

Dessers joined OH Leuven's youth system from K.S.K. Tongeren at the age of 16 in 2011. ^[2] He had previously played youth football for FC De Zwaluw Vechmaal, Union FC Rutten and Sint-Truiden. ^[3] He began studying law at university (KU Leuven) while playing for OH Leuven's youth teams. ^[2] During the 2013–14 season, Dessers stood out for OH Leuven's under-19 and reserve teams, scoring 21 goals in 21 reserve games by March. ^[4] With OHL in danger of relegation and several first-team strikers either out of shape, injured or suspended, he was given his first minutes in the first-team in a 3–2 away loss against Mons. ^[5]

Lokeren

In April 2014, Dessers signed a two-year deal with Lokeren. ^[6]

NAC Breda

In July 2016, he signed for Eerste Divisie club NAC Breda on a contract until the summer of 2019. ^[7] On 28 May 2017, they were promoted to the Eredivisie after a 4–1 victory over NEC, in which Dessers scored three goals. ^[8] He finished the season with 29 goals in 40 matches. ^[9]

Dessers with Lokeren in 2014

FC Utrecht

In July 2017, Dessers moved to FC Utrecht, agreeing a contract for three years with an option for an additional year. ^[10]

Heracles Almelo

Dessers joined Heracles Almelo in July 2019. ^[11] After the 2019–20 Eredivisie season was abandoned, he was jointly awarded the top goalscorer award alongside Steven Berghuis, with 15 goals each. ^[12]

Genk and loan to Feyenoord

On 30 June 2020, Dessers moved to Genk on a four-year deal. ^[13]

On 31 August 2021, Dessers returned to the Netherlands to join Feyenoord on loan with an option to buy. ^[14] He scored his first goal for the club on 19 September, scoring Feyenoord's fourth goal in a 4–0 away win against PSV. ^[15] On 1 June 2022, Feyenoord announced that they had opted not to exercise the option to purchase Dessers' contract. ^[16]

Cremonese

On 10 August 2022, Dessers signed for Italian club Cremonese. ^[17]

Rangers

On 6 July 2023, Dessers joined Scottish Premiership club Rangers for a fee of around £4.3 million. ^{[18] [19]} He made his debut for the club on 5 August 2023, starting in a 1–0 defeat away to Kilmarnock. ^[20] Four days later, Dessers scored his first goal for Rangers, against Swiss club Servette in a Champions League qualifying tie. ^[21]

On 21 April 2024 Dessers scored twice against Hearts to send Rangers to the final of the Scottish Cup. ^[22]

International career

Born in Belgium to a Belgian father and Nigerian mother, Dessers chose to represent Nigeria at international level in December 2019. ^[23] Earlier in his career, he was called up to the Belgium under-21 national team for a game against Moldova, but he was an unused substitute. ^{[3] [24]}

On 4 March 2020, he was called up by Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr as part of the team players invited for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fixtures against Sierra Leone. ^[25] Dessers debuted in a friendly 1–1 draw with Tunisia on 13 October 2020. ^[26]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 21 April 2024 ^{[27] [28]}

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National cup [lower-alpha 1]		League cup [lower-alpha 2]		Continental		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
OH Leuven	2013–14	Belgian Pro League	1	0	0	0	—		—		1 [lower-alpha 3]	0	2	0
Lokeren	2014–15	Belgian Pro League	21	4	3	3	—		3 [lower-alpha 4]	0	2 [lower-alpha 5]	0	29	7
	2015–16		11	0	0	0	—		—		—		11	0
	Total		32	4	3	3	—		3	0	2	0	40	7
NAC Breda	2016–17	Eerste Divisie	36	22	0	0	—		—		4 [lower-alpha 6]	7	40	29
Utrecht	2017–18	Eredivisie	29	9	2	2	—		5 [lower-alpha 4]	1	3 [lower-alpha 7]	0	39	12
	2018–19		11	3	2	2	—		—		4 [lower-alpha 7]	2	17	7
	Total		40	12	4	4	—		5	1	7	2	56	19
Heracles Almelo	2019–20	Eredivisie	26	15	3	3	—		—		—		29	18
Genk	2020–21	Belgian Pro League	32	7	2	0	—		—		—		34	7
	2021–22		3	0	0	0	—		2 [lower-alpha 8]	1	1 [lower-alpha 9]	0	6	1
	2022–23		3	3	0	0	—		—		—		3	3
	Total		38	10	2	0	—		2	1	1	0	43	11
Feyenoord (loan)	2021–22	Eredivisie	27	9	1	1	—		13 [lower-alpha 10]	10	—		41	20
Cremonese	2022–23	Serie A	26	6	3	1	—		—		—		29	7
Rangers	2023–24	Scottish Premiership	30	13	3	3	4	1	11 [lower-alpha 11]	2	—		48	19
Career total			256	91	19	15	4	1	34	14	15	9	328	130

1. Includes Belgian Cup, KNVB Cup, Coppa Italia, Scottish Cup
2. Includes Scottish League Cup
3. Appearance in Belgian Pro League relegation play-offs
4. Appearances in UEFA Europa League
5. Appearances in Belgian Pro League Europa League play-offs
6. Appearances in Eredivisie promotion play-offs
7. Appearances in Eredivisie European play-offs
8. Appearances in UEFA Champions League
9. Appearance in Belgian Super Cup
10. Appearances in UEFA Europa Conference League
11. Four appearances and one goal in UEFA Champions League, seven appearances and one goal in UEFA Europa League

International

As of match played 26 March 2024 ^[29]

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Nigeria	2020	1	0
	2022	3	1
	2024	2	1
Total		6	2

As of match played 26 March 2024

Scores and results list Nigeria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dessers goal. ^[29]

List of international goals scored by Cyriel Dessers

No.	Date	Venue	Cap	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	28 May 2022	AT&T Stadium, Arlington, United States	2	Mexico	1–1	1–2	Friendly
2	22 March 2024	Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech, Morocco	5	Ghana	1–0	2–1	Friendly

Honours

Genk

• Belgian Cup: 2020–21 ^[30]

Feyenoord

• UEFA Europa Conference League runner-up: 2021–22 ^[31]

Rangers

• Scottish League Cup: 2023–24 ^[32]

Individual

• Eredivisie top scorer: 2019–20 ^[33]
• Eredivisie Player of the Month: November 2019 ^[34]
• UEFA Europa Conference League top scorer: 2021–22 ^[35]
• UEFA Europa Conference League Team of the Season: 2021–22 ^[36]

References

1. "Player profile".
2. "Dessers maakt in Oostenrijk debuut voor nationale ploeg Nigeria". ad.nl. 14 October 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
3. "Cyriel Dessers". rbfa.be. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
4. "'Ik leer in ijltempo bij'". nieuwsblad.be. 13 March 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
5. "Jupiler Pro League - 30e speeldag: RAEC Mons - Oud-Heverlee Leuven 3 - 2" (in Dutch). ohl.be. 16 March 2014. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
6. "Lokeren signs young striker from OHL" (in Dutch). sporza.be. 2 April 2014.
7. "Sporting Lokeren-spits Cyriel Dessers (21) tekent voor 3 jaar bij NAC". omroepbrabant.nl. 7 July 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
8. "NEC degradeert na forse nederlaag tegen NAC". nos.nl. 28 May 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
9. "Cyriel Dessers: Cremonese sign Nigeria forward from Genk". BBC Sport. 10 August 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
10. "FC Utrecht hengelt Dessers binnen". 1 June 2018 (in Dutch). Retrieved 3 July 2018.
11. "Dessers verruilt Utrecht voor Heracles". telegraaf.nl. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
12. "INTERVIEW CYRIEL DESSERS: "OF IK JALOERS BEN OP STEVEN BERGHUIS? JA"". elfvoetbal.nl. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
13. Projects, Sanmax (30 June 2020). "Cyriel Dessers: "Nu ben ik waar ik wil zijn." | KRC Genk". krcgenk.be. K.R.C. Genk.
14. "Cyriel Dessers verhuurd aan Feyenoord". krcgenk.be (in Dutch). K.R.C. Genk. 31 August 2021.
15. "Feyenoord vernedert onmachtig PSV in Eindhoven". vi.nl (in Dutch). Voetbal International. 19 September 2021.
16. "Feyenoord decide against taking up Dessers option". feyenoord.com. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
17. "DESSERS NUOVO CALCIATORE DELLA CREMONESE" (in Italian). Cremonese. 10 August 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
18. "Scottish Gossip: Dessers, Bassey, Abada, Danilo, Matondo, Siegrist, Doig, Doidge, Levitt, Silvera". BBC Sport. 4 July 2023.
19. "Cyriel Dessers: Rangers sign Nigeria striker from Cremonese for undisclosed fee". BBC Sport. 6 July 2023.
20. "Kilmarnock 1-0 Rangers". BBC Sport. 5 August 2023.
21. "Rangers 2–1 Servette". BBC Sport. 9 August 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
22. "Rangers beat Hearts to set up final with Celtic". BBC Sport. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
23. "Cyriel Dessers: Dutch league's leading scorer opts for Nigeria". BBC Sport. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
24. "Cyriel Dessers debuteert voor Nigeria: "Hoogtepunt in mijn carrière"". hln.be. 14 October 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
25. Oludare, Shina. "Dessers & Ehizibue earn Nigeria call-ups as Leicester City's Iheanacho returns". Goal.com.
26. "Nigeria vs. Tunisia". Soccerway. 13 October 2020.
27. Cyriel Dessers at Soccerway. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
28. "Cyriel Dessers » Club matches". WorldFootball.net. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
29. "Cyriel Dessers Internationals". WorldFootball.net. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
30. "Onuachu with an assist as Genk clinch Belgian Cup title after Standard Liege win". Goal. 26 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
31. Honeyman, Sam (25 May 2022). "Roma 1–0 Feyenoord: Zaniolo strike wins the first Europa Conference League final". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
32. "Rangers 1-0 Aberdeen". BBC. 17 December 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
33. "Dutch Eredivisie Top Scorers". NOS (in Dutch). 8 March 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
34. "Cyriel Dessers named as player of the month". eredivisie.nl. 4 December 2019. Archived from the original on 30 May 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
35. "2021/22 Europa Conference League top scorers: Cyriel Dessers finishes ahead of Tammy Abraham". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 25 May 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
36. "2021/22 Europa Conference League Team of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 27 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.

External links

• Profile at the Rangers F.C. website
• Cyriel Dessers at the Royal Belgian Football Association