Lorenzo AMORUSO

Signed from Fiorentina for £4 million, Lorenzo Amoruso was an excellent centre-half who attracted the attention of Manchester United prior to his arrival in Glasgow as part of Walter Smith's summer spending spree in 1997.

Smith had earmarked Amoruso to take over from the departing Richard Gough at the heart of the Ibrox defence, but an ankle injury sustained in a pre-season friendly against Everton meant that he had to wait until April 1998 until he made his first competitive appearance for the club. His baptism couldn't have been fiercer, a Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic at Parkhead, but he acquitted himself well after replacing the injured Gordan Petric and almost scored with a thundering shot from all of forty yards!

Rangers won the match 2-1 and defeated their archrivals again when Amoruso made his league debut seven days later. The Italian remained in the team for the closing stages of the 1997/98 campaign, but was ordered off as Rangers' title charge faltered during a 1-0 defeat against Aberdeen at Pittodrie. He endured further misery at the end of the season when he was part of the team that lost 2-1 to Hearts in the Final of the Scottish Cup. With the Light Blues trailing 1-0, Amoruso was caught in possession by Stephane Adam early in the second half, and the Frenchman duly punished the errant Italian to double Hearts' lead.

When Dutchman Dick Advocaat arrived to take charge at Ibrox in June 1998, one of his first acts was to appoint Lorenzo team captain, and the Italian led the club to a glorious domestic Treble (the photo above is during a 2-1 win against St. Johnstone in the Scottish League Cup final, the first leg of the hat-trick of successes) during his first season wearing the armband. In contrast to his debut season, Amoruso remained relatively injury-free and missed only six matches at home and abroad. He scored his first goal for the club in a League Cup-tie against Alloa Athletic in August, but had to endure a degree of barracking from his own fans before he won them over with a series of assured displays. A League and Cup double followed in 1999/2000, with Amoruso making forty-six appearances and scoring five goals, although injury meant that he missed the Scottish Cup Final when Rangers defeated Aberdeen by four goals to nil.

Significant strides were made in Europe in those two seasons too, with splendid victories registered against PAOK Salonika and Bayer Leverkusen en-route to the last sixteen of the 1998/99 UEFA Cup. Amoruso proved to be a fine performer on the European stage, but it was his inexplicable handball against Parma that conceded the penalty that effectively ended the Light Blues' interest in the competition. He made up for that glaring error with two fine displays when the same opponents were despatched in the qualifying round of the 1999/2000 Champions League, and he scored a fine header in the group stages when PSV Eindhoven were humbled 4-1 at Ibrox. Alas, a disputed penalty in the Olympic Stadium in Munich cost Rangers a place in the next phase of the competition. Nevertheless, credibility had been restored and Amoruso had been at the hub of a number of the club's excellent displays. (Alistair Aird, Author of Ally McCoist - Portrait of a Hero)

After two trophy-laden seasons as skipper all seemed to be rosy in the Lorenzo Amoruso garden, but things started to turn sour for Lorenzo in the 2000/2001 season. He was often prone to errors due to his fondness of trying to dribble his way out of trouble and, after a number of high-profile defensive lapses, Amoruso was controversially stripped of the captaincy in October 2000. Rangers were in the midst of a form slump at the time - they had just lost three successive SPL matches, including a 3-0 thumping at home against Kilmarnock - and many felt Amoruso was being cast as the scapegoat for the dire run of results. His days at Ibrox looked to be numbered, and he was linked with a move to Sunderland and West Ham United. Both failed to materialise - in both instances a fee was agreed only for the move to collapse when the clubs failed to meet Amoruso's wage demands - and Lorenzo's miserable season was eventually brought to an shuddering conclusion when an ignominious 3-0 defeat at home to Celtic reinforced The Hoops' superiority in a dire season for the blue half of Glasgow. Martin O'Neill's side won the Treble for the first time since 1969 and were fifteen points clear of runners-up Rangers at the end of the SPL campaign.

Despite continuing speculation about his future at Ibrox, Amoruso was still a fixture in the Rangers team at the start of the 2001/2002 season. He tended to partner either Bert Konterman or Craig Moore at the heart of the Rangers defence, with his relationship with the latter proving to be the most successful.

After signing a new contract in September 2001, Amoruso enjoyed a new lease of life when Alex McLeish took over the managerial reins from Dick Advocaat three months later. He missed only three league matches after McLeish arrived, and in addition to picking up winners' medals in the Scottish League Cup and Scottish Cup, Amoruso was voted Player of the Year by the SPFA for the 2001/2002 season.

The Italian was also an integral part of the team that claimed the domestic Treble in his final campaign in Glasgow, 2002/03. He made thirty-two appearances and scored six goals, and it was his header that secured the Scottish Cup in a 1-0 win over Dundee in the Final at Hampden.

Lorenzo made a total of 221 appearances and scored twenty-four goals in a Rangers jersey, but despite having a year of his contract still to run, he elected to join Blackburn Rovers for £1.4 million in July 2003. He scored on his debut for his new club in an emphatic 5-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers, but his time at Ewood Park was blighted by injury and he returned to Italy in 2006. (Alistair Aird, Author of Ally McCoist - Portrait of a Hero)