Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst says Joe Aribo’s “ambition is to play in the Premier League” and he is likely to move there “in the near future”.
The 25-year-old joined from Charlton Athletic in 2019 and has scored 26 goals in 148 games – including their most recent Europa League defeat last season.
“What he did for this club was fantastic,” said Van Bronckhorst.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the Ibrox manager added: “Joe is a very important player for us. His development was really good.
“It’s what you want as a club, to get talented players, develop them into really good players and finally the player has his own ambitions.”
While Aribo, who was part of Steven Gerrard’s squad that won the title in 2020-21, appears to be leaving the club, Van Bronckhorst confirmed striker Antonio Colak is close to completing a move from Greek club PAOK.
The Croatian striker scored 19 goals on loan for Malmo last season, including two for Ibrox, as the Swedes eliminated Gerrard’s men in Champions League qualifying.
Van Bronckhorst said the ‘damage’ the 28-year-old inflicted on Rangers last August ‘shows his quality’.
“We are very close to him,” added the Dutchman. “We worked hard to get him on board. Hopefully he’ll join us soon and give us some additional options ahead of time.
“He’s shown in the teams he’s played for that he can score goals. He’s a really good striker. We want to be successful in all the competitions we play in, so we need to have the squad to to be able to do that.”
