Meet Daisuke Yokota: The 'outstanding' Rangers signing who coach saw Lionel Messi in

Rangers' new signing Daisuke Yokota has received some of the highest forms of praise during his career.

The 26-year-old winger has now completed his transfer to Rangers on Wednesday, joining from German side Hannover.

He's penned a three-year contract at Ibrox, with Gers also holding the option to extend that by a further 12 months.

Yokota has a unique career path on his CV, starting his career in his native Japan before moving to Germany as an 18-year-old, but would soon end up in Latvian football with Valmiera.

He would then move to Gent in 2024 before eventually finding his way to Hannover the following year, and now he's ready to start his latest chapter in Scotland with Rangers.

It was during his time out on loan in Germany, however, that Yokota really started to turn heads, and a number of his former coaches have had some very interesting things to say about Gers' new signing.

What Derek McInnes will need to do to get Daisuke Yokota's best

For the 2024-25 season, Yokota was loaned out to German 2.Bundesliga (second division) side FC Kaiserslautern.

There he would score four goals and provide two assists in 26 total appearances, enjoying a fruitful spell.

And, in a December 2024 interview via German news outlet Sport1, then-Kaiserslautern boss Markus Anfang raved about Yokota's ability, but it was what he said about his personality that Rangers boss Derek McInnes should really pay attention to.

"Everything he (Yokota) does is well-planned and makes perfect sense. There's nothing by chance," Anfang said.

"(Yokota is) a player you have to give a certain amount of freedom to. He's currently bursting with joy for the game. That naturally helps us. It's good for him that we have a clear structure where he also has his freedom."

So, Yokota sounds like a player that thrives when he's not given too many instructions, and rather, McInnes may need to just let him go out there and express himself at Ibrox.

If he does that, then another of Yokota's former coaches has already told Gers just how good of a player they'll see.

Why ex-youth coach had "never seen anything like" Yokota

After moving from Japan to Germany as a teenager, Yokota spent a brief period of time in the academy of lower-league team FSV Frankfurt.

It was there that he worked under academy coach Hakan Sunal, who by his own admission, wasn't taken by Yokota from a physical standpoint.

However, speaking via that same aforementioned report from Sport1, Sunal was instantly blown away by what the Japanese winger could do with the ball at his feet, so much so that he thought he'd been given the best player in the world to work with.

“Physically, he was very weak. The first time we went into the weight room, he was exhausted after 15 minutes," he said.

"But technically, I'd never seen anything like it; he was truly outstanding, especially his left foot. Did you bring me (Lionel) Messi?”

Given this level of testimony, Rangers may just have added a player who could swing the Scottish Premiership title race in their favour.