Lionel Charbonnier (1998 to 2001)

With a new era dawning for Rangers under Dick Advocaat in the summer of 1998, Charbonnier was one of six high profile players to join the Club as over £20m was invested in recruiting Gabriel Amato, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, Arthur Numan, Andrei Kanchelskis and Rodney Wallace. More were to follow in the weeks and months ahead.

Whilst legendary figures such as Durrant, Gough, Laudrup, McCall and McCoist had all moved on, one of the big questions within the support that summer was who could possibly replace Andy Goram in the Rangers goal? Whilst Antti Niemi was already at the Club, Advocaat got his own man in on 16th July 1998 when Gers paid Auxerre £1.2m for 31-year old Charbonnier.

Lionel had been the first choice goalkeeper at Auxerre for the previous six seasons and had prior knowledge of Rangers from their 1996/97 Champions League clashes. He was moving to Scotland on an almighty high, having been part of France's star-studded World Cup winning squad (he did not make an appearance in the finals). In fact, the signing deadline for the 1998/99 UEFA qualifiers was almost missed due the fact that the French FA was still shut following those celebrations!

Lionel’s first appearance for Rangers came in a pre-season friendly at Falkirk as the 1st Division side were defeated 2-0 at Brockville.

When the competitive action got under way it was Niemi who found himself in goal but it was not the start to the season the Fin would have been hoping for, conceding 3 goals against Shelbourne before being on the losing side during the League curtain raiser at Tynecastle.

Despite keeping a clean sheet in the UEFA tie with PAOK Salonika, Advocaat replaced Niemi with Charbonnier for the visit of Motherwell to Ibrox on 15th August 1998. Rangers won the game 2-1 but it took a last minute penalty from Jorg Albertz to secure maximum points. Owen Coyle had got the better of Charbonnier on 51 minutes when his angled drive from the edge of the box beat the Frenchman, a strike that proved to be the Steelmen's only attempt on goal all afternoon.

Lionel would start the next 18 matches for Rangers, securing 10 clean sheets in the process. By now, he was very much becoming a favourite with the support and this was enhanced with his man of the match performance against Celtic during the goalless draw on 20th September 1998. He made two world class saves at Ibrox that afternoon, the first from a Larsson header just before the interval was simply stunning and his injury time stop from Tosh McKinlay not far behind. It is fair to say that ‘The Goalie’ would have been proud of either of those saves in a fixture he had dominated so frequently in prior seasons.

A first leg victory over Bayer Leverkusen in Germany was another highlight of Lionel’s Rangers career as the huge travelling support proudly belted out their adaptation of 'La Marseillaise' in tribute of the eccentric Frenchman. Constantly prowling the edge of his penalty box in his own unique style, Charbonnier would play his part in what was, arguably, Rangers greatest overseas win in 20 years.

As Rangers approached the 2nd leg of the tie with Leverkusen on 5th November 1998, Lionel was in top form and Advocaat’s newly assembled side was now gathering momentum. All was going well for the Frenchman, Rangers were holding off Kilmarnock at the top of the league but, more significantly, were already 7 points clear of Celtic. A League Cup Final place had also been secured with the 5-0 thrashing of Airdrieonians at Celtic Park just three days on from that momorable first leg win in Germany.

However, everything changed in the 67th minute of the second leg tie with Leverkusen when Charbonnier had to be stretchered off with an injured knee. With Rangers leading 1-0 (and 3-1 on aggregate), Niemi was forced into action from the bench. Leverkusen would pull a goal back to make it a nervous finale but Rangers would see it through. For Charbonnier, however, the season was tragically over.

Rangers would complete the signing of Stefan Klos in the lead up to Christmas and by the time Lionel had fully recovered from injury the German was undoubtedly Advocaat’s established number one. It would be fair to say that, in the end, Charbonnier's relationship with Advocaat was less than positive.

A training ground injury to Klos following the commencement of season 1999/00 saw Charbonnier make a brief return to first team action. He would play in 5 successive league fixtures as Rangers took maximum points and also helped the Club qualify for the Champions League on a tense night in the sweltering heat of Parma.

Lionel's final appearance came in the last competitive Rangers match of the millennium as a goal from Billy Dodds secured a 1-1 draw with Celtic at Parkhead.

On leaving Rangers, Charbonnier joined Lausanne Sports in Switzerland's top flight. A move into management in the lower Leagues of French football followed and Lionel was involved in the international set-ups of both Tahiti and Indonesia.

In all, Charbonnier made 30 competitive first team appearances for Rangers during his time in Glasgow, becoming somewhat of a cult hero. But for injury, it could have been so very different.

by Rick Plews