Credit: Imago

James Barker

Mon 20 April 2026 17:40, UK

Youssef Chermiti has provided a significant upgrade on Cyriel Dessers for Rangers in the physical side of leading the line.

The 21-year-old arrived at Ibrox last summer from Everton, in one of the headline deals of the Scottish Premiership summer transfer window of 2025-26.

Dessers would in turn see his two-year spell in Glasgow come to an end, joining Greek giants Panathinaikos on a permanent transfer.

Given his age and relative lack of senior experience, Chermiti’s signing was a sizeable gamble by Gers, as he’d only ever played 34 times for Everton’s first-team as well as making just 22 for Sporting’s respectively.

However, with 11 goals to his name so far this season, he currently stands as Rangers’ top scorer, and is set to play a key role in the Scottish Premiership title run-in in the remaining post-split fixtures.

Youssef Chermiti and Cyriel Dessers’ league stats compared

Dessers had a mixed spell of success at Rangers, with many fans critical of his performances despite the fact he bagged over 50 goals in just two full seasons in Glasgow.

However, the writing was on the wall for him at the time of his exit, and in Chermiti, Gers supporters were instantly excited at the potential player they had on their hands.

Both players are big centre-forwards, and clearly that’s an element to the attack that Rangers have wanted to ensure they have in recent times.

Bojan Miovski, Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Naderi and even Hamza Igamane all being tough and bruising forwards, and Chermiti has also shown he can handle himself in the physical side of the game too.

In fact, he’s more than handled himself in that department this season, and he’s posting considerably better numbers here than Dessers was able to last season.

Indeed, as per Sofascore, Chermiti has averaged 3.0 ground and aerial duels won per game in the league this season, whereas Dessers registered averages of just 1.2 ground duels won and 0.8 aerial duels won last term.

Chermiti also has a higher dribble success rate of 45.7 per cent compared to Dessers’ 36.7 per cent, and has won 1.0 tackles per match this term opposed the latter’s 0.3 respectively.

Dessers was caught offside more times per game last season than Chermiti has been this term too, with the former seeing the flag raised against him 0.8 times per match compared to the latter’s 0.4.

How is Dessers faring with Panathinaikos?

So, whilst Chermiti may not yet have been able to replicate Dessers’ goal numbers, he has provided the team with a big upgrade as a target man up top.

The grass has so far not been greener for Dessers in Greece either, although that’s partially not been through any fault of his own.

Now 31, the Nigerian international hasn’t been seen since December 2025, having suffered an injury around New Year time.

As such, he’s only been able to make eight total appearances for Panathinaikos in 2025-26, scoring three times in all competitions, culminating in just 182 minutes of Greek Super League action.

Updated 24/7 with expert analysis from the heart of Govan.