Issam Charai lifts lid on Rangers throwback who 'can go as far as he wants' as coach hails 'natural ability'

The 22-year-old striker from Morocco has made a positive impact in his first season in Scottish football with 15 goals in 43 appearances resulting in a PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award nomination.

He was signed for £1.5million from FAR Rabat last summer on the back of a glowing recommendation from his former national youth team boss Issam Charai, who subsequently followed him to Ibrox when he was appointed assistant manager to the now departed Philippe Clement in January and who is now part of interim head coach Barry Ferguson's backroom staff.

It was Charai who handed Igamane his debut for Morocco Under 23s after being struck by his raw, natural ability, honed on the streets of Temara before making his belated first steps into club football at the age of 16.

"His first national selection was with me," explained the Rangers coach. "I went to see many of his games playing for FAR Rabat, which is actually a big team in Morocco. He was only 19 or 20 at that point but his potential was immediately clear.

“At that time I had many good strikers. But when he came and he trained with us, I saw that his finishing quality was quite high.

“He needed to work a bit on his physicality. But that was normal because he actually started quite late as a football player.

"He used to play in the streets. And then I think he started only at the age of 16. It was only then that he began playing organised football. It’s amazing to think that just four years later he was in the first team. So it's a nice story.

“When I brought him into the national team youth set-up, you could see that a lot of things were intuitive. He knows when he gets the ball, he makes a decision, a quick decision on what to do. So that was quite nice to see.

“Sometimes he does things and you think, what did he just do? That's natural ability. That's something that obviously now in organised football, he made a lot of steps."

In an age where players are often developed through performance schools and club academies, Igamane is a throwback to a previous generation of street footballers.

Charai reckons this uniqueness can help him to the top. “Hamza can go as far as he wants," he added. "I think he has all the potential.

“Obviously, it's his first year. So he still has a lot of things to improve. But I see his potential going very far.

“What does he need to work on? Obviously, I think it's tactically that he has to improve. To be more adaptable at playing different positions. To know when to go deep, to know when to hit the box.

“Sometimes he always wants the ball into his feet. Sometimes he has to ask the ball a little bit more in space. So to find that variation, because he's a menace for all the defenders.

“So he has to use that quality that he has. So I’d say tactically he can improve.

“You also have to remember the fact that he has played a lot of games. It's the first year that he plays so many games in a short time. So physically, certainly he has to also improve."