Signing for Rangers on 16th July 1998 was French goalkeeper Lionel Charbonnier.
With a new era dawning for Rangers under Dick Advocaat in the summer of 1998, Charbonnier was one of 6 high profile players to join the Club as in excess of £20m was invested in recruiting Amato, Van Bronckhorst, Numan, Kanchelskis and Rod Wallace. More were to follow in the weeks and months ahead. Of course, legendary figures such as Durrant, Gough, Laudrup, McCall and McCoist had all moved on but for many fans, one of the big questions that summer was “who could possibly replace Andy Goram”?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.
Charbonnier 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 joining on a high having been part of the French World Cup winning squad (although he did not make an appearance in the finals). In fact, the signing deadline for the 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 big Fin would have been hoping for as he conceded 3 goals against Shelbourne and was on the losing side during the league opener 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 Albertz to secure maximum points. 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 Lanarkshire sides only attempt on goal all afternoon.
Charbonnier would start the next 18 matches for Rangers securing 10 clean sheets in the process. By now, he was becoming a fans favourite and this was enhanced with his man of the match performance against Celtic during the goalless draw on 20th September. He made two world class saves at Ibrox that afternoon, the first from a Larsson header just before the interval was quite stunning and his second from McKinlay in injury time not far behind. It is fair to say that ‘The Goalie’ would have been proud of these saves in a fixture he had dominated so often in previous 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 win overseas 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 side was now gathering real 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 Parkhead just 3 days after the first leg win in Germany.
However, everything changed in the 67th minute of that 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 last 12 minutes but Rangers would see it through. For Charbonnier, however, the season was over.
Significantly, Rangers would complete the signing of Stefan Klos in the lead up to Christmas and by the time Lionel had recovered from injury the German was undoubtedly Advocaat’s established number 1. 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 another memorable European night in Parma.
His final appearance for Rangers came in our last match of the millennium as we earned a 1-1 draw with Celtic at Parkhead. In all, he made 30 first team appearances during his time in Glasgow and certainly became a real cult hero.
by Rick Plews
