Rangers Secure Signature of Luca Rankin, Son of Airdrieonians Boss John Rankin

Rangers have tied down another highly rated academy prospect, confirming that midfielder Luca Rankin has put pen to paper on his first professional contract at Ibrox. The 16-year-old, whose father John Rankin manages Airdrieonians and previously enjoyed a lengthy playing career at Hibernian and Dundee United, has committed his future to the Light Blues until 2029, choosing to stay despite interest from elsewhere.

This wasn’t a case of Rangers being the only option on the table. Rankin, who has represented Scotland at youth level, had attracted attention from rival clubs before opting to remain at Ibrox. He’s spent the past season working across the club’s under-17s and under-19s setups while also getting exposure to first-team training, and it’s that pathway — rather than any lack of alternatives — that appears to have shaped his decision.

Interim academy head David McCallum framed the signing as validation of the club’s development structure. He said the club was thrilled that Luca had signed his first professional contract, adding that interest in him from other clubs had been well documented. McCallum also stressed that the teenager’s own belief in what Rangers can offer was central to the outcome, noting his development throughout the academy and the club’s commitment to supporting him going forward.

A club statement filled in the biographical detail: Rankin turned 16 last month and has now committed to Ibrox for three years, a deal that will keep him at the club until the summer of 2029. Both the club’s under-17 and under-19 sides won their respective league titles last season, and Rankin featured regularly for both, while also earning caps for Scotland at under-16 level.

There’s an obvious family thread running through this story. John Rankin built a solid Scottish Premiership playing career primarily at Hibernian and Dundee United before moving into management, and now sits in the dugout at Airdrieonians. His son is now charting his own path in the game, albeit at a different club and in a different role — as a midfielder working his way up through one of Scottish football’s most productive academy pipelines

Rankin isn’t an isolated case. He’s part of what’s been described as a particularly strong 2010-born age group at Rangers, several of whom have faced — and turned down — interest from clubs elsewhere this year. Ashton Scally, another product of that same intake, made his senior debut in the final match of last season against Falkirk. Along with Kyle Glasgow, both Scally and Rankin had already been given first-team exposure under previous head coach Danny Röhl, prior to Derek McInnes taking over as manager.

McCallum has previously spoken about how deliberately Rangers have managed the progression of these young players, using Scally as the clearest example. He explained that planning for Scally’s development began early in the season, when the player was still only 15, with the club building a schedule that balanced his school commitments with graduated football exposure — starting him in the age-appropriate under-17s bracket before layering in under-19s minutes and eventually first-team training, specifically to avoid the player hitting a developmental ceiling before he was ready for the step up.

McCallum described a specific example of this approach in action, recalling a behind-closed-doors friendly against Motherwell during an international break in which Scally, Glasgow and Rankin all featured together and picked up valuable minutes despite their young ages. He noted that Scally was able to make his senior competitive debut only once he turned 16 near the end of the season, with a similar structured approach applied to Glasgow, Rankin and other academy prospects in that same bracket

For Rangers, locking down Rankin long-term is as much about squad planning as it is about reward for early promise. At 16, with three years already committed on paper, he joins a small cluster of academy graduates the club is clearly building around for the medium term — evidence, in the club’s own framing, that a clear pathway to the first team is proving to be a persuasive recruitment tool in its own right, even against interest from clubs south of the border and elsewhere.