Glasgow Rangers of Scotland duo of Leon Aderemi Balogun and Joe Aribo have got a golden opportunity of showcasing their talent against Real Madrid of Spain, as their club have scheduled an international club friendly with Los Blancos on July 25.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Balogun and Aribo will now hope to be fit enough to play the game, when The Gers line out versus the Spanish LaLiga giants, who will be under a new coach for the season.
The new man in charge at Santiago Bernabeu is Carlo Ancelotti, who was last season in charge of Alex Iwobi at Everton of England, where he previously also handled John Mikel Obi and Victor Moses at Chelsea.
The next pair of Nigerian pairs to play under Ancelotti’s prying eyes will be on the opposing side, as Aribo and Balogun play at home in the pre-season friendly against the 13-time European champions, who will visit Ibrox on July 25, six days before Rangers open their Scottish Premiership title defence against Livingston.
The match against Ancelotti’s side will also serve as preparation for Rangers’ outing in the UEFA Champions League qualifying race, which begins on August 3, ahead of which they will get some useful lessons from Real, who first visited Ibrox in the 1963-64 European Cup and left with a 1-0 victory, courtesy of a late Ferenc Puskas goal, and the won 6-0 in Spain.
The July 25 game also comes some two months after Aribo and Balogun went into the history book of Scottish football by helping Rangers finish the season as Scottish champions, unbeaten and surpassing the 100 points barrier.
Aribo was on parade as Rangers thrashed Aberdeen 4-0 in their final game of the season at Ibrox, where Kemar Roofe double and Jermain Defoe’s strikes gave The Gers another win, and they ended the campaign with 102 points from 38-game, 25 ahead of former champions and fellow-Glasgow-based rivals, Celtic.
Aribo played 27 league matches, scored seven goals, and made four assists, while Balogun was in action 19 times and notched two assists for the team that set a new defensive record with 26 clean sheets, 13 league goals conceded – beating 15 set by Jose Mourinho’s 2005 Chelsea side.
