Former Rangers star’s contract is terminated just 16 months into four-year deal – in move which could alert top European clubs

A former Rangers favourite has seen his four-year deal with European heavyweights terminated just 16 months after uprooting his life to move across the continent.

Ryan Kent has been canned by Fenerbahce following months of mostly being frozen out after a deadline-day move to Lazio collapsed last January.

The 27-year-old had only managed one appearance this season for Jose Mourinho’s side and was excluded from all of their league match squads. 

Kent joined Liverpool’s academy aged seven but only managed one senior appearance and, after five loan spells at five clubs, eventually moved to Rangers permanently in 2019 for £6.5million.

The forward was a popular figure at Rangers, where he spent five seasons (including a loan spell) and won the Scottish Premiership title under Steven Gerrard in 2020-21. 

Kent had reportedly refused to leave the club last winter and has played once this season 

The attacking star came through Liverpool’s academy and made one senior appearance

He had been a hit with supporters during his 2018-19 loan spell and went on to win the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year Award at the end of the season. 

He was a key part of the team that won the Scottish Cup and reached the Europa League final in 2021-22.

In total he racked up 218 appearances for the Glasgow giants and scored 33 goals. 

During his time at Ibrox there was even talk of him being an outside shout for the England squad but he only ever made it as high as the Under-20s. 

His Instagram shows no record of his time in Turkey, where he shared a dressing room with Edin Dzeko, Allan Saint-Maximin, Fred, Dusan Tadic, Sofyan Amrabat, Caglar Soyuncu, and Cenk Tosun. 

Fenerbahce issued a cold statement to announce that he had been let go.

‘The contract with Ryan Kent, one of the Professional Football A Team players, has been terminated by mutual agreement. We present it to the public,’ the club wrote. 

The Oldham-born star was linked with multiple clubs this summer, turning down an offer from an unnamed Scottish club, according to The Sun.

Jose Mourinho was reportedly unimpressed that Kent had refused to leave before he arrived

In January he also had interest from Leeds and Hull, as well as the Lazio bid, but he reportedly refused to leave Fenerbahce, provoking the anger of former boss Ismail Kartal – and Mourinho did not take to him either. 

On leaving Rangers in the summer of 2023, he said: ‘My time at Ibrox is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

I immediately fell in love with the club and fans and have made some memories that I will look back on with great happiness.

‘As a kid, it is a dream to play in European competitions, and win leagues and cups, but to do that in front of the Ibrox crowds is something else entirely, it’s a privilege. 

‘I will forever carry Rangers in my heart.’