Stefan Klos 1, Goalkeeper

Born: Dortmund 16/8/1971

Stefan Klos signed for Rangers for £700,000 from Borussia Dortmund on Christmas Eve 1998 after a long-running transfer saga.

The German keeper eventually arrived as a replacement for the injured Lionel Charbonnier. But Rangers' interest in Klos went back more than a year.

He was on Dick Advocaat's wanted list even before the manager took up his position at Ibrox in July 1998 and Klos had agreed to join Rangers last Summer. But he became involved in a contract dispute with Dortmund which took months to resolve. During that time Klos appealed to the German courts but failed to win his freedom. Finally, he even made a financial contribution to buying out his contract so that he could play for Rangers. Klos went straight into the team, keeping a clean sheet on his debut in the 1-0 win over St Johnstone in the Premier League on Boxing Day 1998. He kept his place for the rest of the season and amassed eleven clean sheets in just 23 games as he collected three winners medals in his first season at Ibrox. Before arriving in Glasgow Klos was at Dortmund for 10 years, winning the German Bundesliga twice. He is very experienced in European competition and was in the Dortmund team which won the Champions' Cup by beating Juventus 3-1 in the Final in May 1997. He played twice against Rangers in the Champions League in 1995-96 when both matches against Dortmund finished 2-2. Klos also appeared in a UEFA Cup Final in 1993 when Dortmund lost 6-1 on aggregate to Juventus. Stefan was unfortunately injured in the qualifying clash with Parma, damaging a knee that would keep him out for a number of weeks. However he returned in mid October to take back the number one slot from Lionel Charbonnier and appeared in the thrilling 4-1 over PSV Eindhoven at Ibrox. But once again injury struck when he broke his arm in training whilst blocking one of Jorg Albertz' famous shots. That meant he had to miss both games against former club Dortmund as Rangers brought in Thomas Myhre on loan from Everton to cover. Having undergone treatment in Germany, Klos returned to the first team in time to kick of the second half of the season with a clean sheet against Aberdeen. He was further boosted by the news that he was still in contention for a place in the German squad that will travel to Belgium and Holland for Euro 2000.

[2 Sergio Porrini>>>