Ronald Waterreus faked on-field injury prior to acrimonious Rangers exit
Ronald Waterreus has revealed he quit Rangers in a huff because club officials misspelt his name on his contract.
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And the Dutch keeper, who won the 2005 SPL title, said he faked an on-field injury to test the Ibrox public’s reaction to him.
Gers signed the Holland international from Manchester City, and he made 49 senior appearances.
However the seven-cap international fell out of favour when appearing to criticise his teammates and chairman David Murray in a Dutch magazine interview.
He returned home to join AZ Alkmaar in 2006 after failing to agree a new deal.
Waterreus, 47, recalled: “Rangers sent me a contract offer by fax, but they had spelled my name wrong.
“So I angrily sent them a fax in reply, telling them: ‘If you can’t even spell my name properly ...’
“They dutifully sent me another fax, which this time had my name spelt correctly.
“However, they still misspelt the name of my agent Kees Ploegsma on it.
“So I said: ‘I’m not talking with you any more!’
“I knew that I was going to leave Rangers. I had given an interview back home that was a bit spiky, and it was translated into English.
“We then played at home to Motherwell, and I was roundly booed by my own fans. That is no fun when there are 48,000 of them!
“A few weeks later we were at home to Hearts. I played very well, and thought I would make a statement for once.
“So, two minutes from time, I pretended to have torn a hamstring.
“Of course that was not the case at all, but I said: ‘I’ve got to come off.’
“So I walked off the pitch, and received a standing ovation. I reached the touchline, and the manager Alex McLeish asked me: ‘What’s the matter?’
“I replied: ‘Nothing - I just wanted to see if the fans were still going to boo me.”