Medical Done, Deal Almost Sealed: How Ben Godfrey’s Rangers Move Became Real And Why The Option To Buy Makes It A Game-Changer

The phone calls have been made. The paperwork has been reviewed. The medical has been completed. And barring any last-minute complications that nobody in either camp is anticipating, Ben Godfrey is about to become a Rangers player — the third signing of Derek McInnes’s summer rebuild and, quietly, one of the most interesting and potentially significant pieces of transfer business the club has done in years.

Atalanta defender Ben Godfrey has completed a medical at Rangers ahead of a season-long loan deal. The Englishman moved to the Serie A club from Everton in 2024. He has been on loan at Ipswich, Sheffield United and Brøndby since. It is expected there will be a significant option to buy included in the deal.

That word — significant — is doing a great deal of work in that sentence. It tells you that this is not a standard loan arrangement with a token buy clause attached as an afterthought. This is a deal structured with genuine intent on both sides. Rangers want the option. Atalanta are prepared to include it. And Godfrey himself, a 28-year-old defender at a crossroads in his career, is arriving at Ibrox with the full understanding that this loan could become something much more permanent if he delivers what McInnes believes he is capable of delivering.

The medical is done. The deal is close. The story of how Godfrey ended up in Glasgow — and why it makes complete sense for everyone involved — is one worth telling in full.

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**The Making Of A Defender: From York City To The Premier League**

Before Ben Godfrey became a Rangers transfer target, before he became an Everton player worth £20 million, before he pulled on an Atalanta shirt and found himself in a situation that required three separate loan moves to navigate, he was a kid from York who loved football and was good enough to make something of it.

Godfrey came through the York City academy — not exactly the most glamorous starting point for a Premier League career, but one that taught him the basics of professional football in an environment where nothing is handed to you and every opportunity has to be earned. York City, playing in the lower reaches of the English Football League, gave Godfrey his first taste of senior football and the foundation on which everything that followed would be built.

The move to Norwich City as a teenager was the first real indication that scouts at bigger clubs had noticed something special in Godfrey’s game. At Carrow Road, under managers who believed in developing young talent and giving it competitive opportunities, Godfrey grew rapidly into one of the most promising centre-backs in the Championship. His physical attributes were obvious — tall, athletic, quick for his position, comfortable in the air. But what set him apart from other promising defenders of his generation was his technical quality, his ability on the ball, and his comfort operating in the kind of high-pressing systems that modern football demands.

Norwich were, at the time Godfrey was developing there, one of the most technically sophisticated clubs outside the Premier League — a club that produced and developed talent with a consistency that belied their resources. Being part of that environment shaped Godfrey’s game in ways that would become increasingly apparent as his career progressed, and when Norwich secured promotion to the Premier League, Godfrey was one of the players who had earned the right to test himself at the highest level of English football.

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**The Everton Investment: £20 Million And The Promise Of More**

The move to Everton in 2020 confirmed what everyone in English football already suspected — that Ben Godfrey was not just a good Championship defender but a genuine Premier League talent. Premier League stalwarts Everton spent an initial £20 million, possibly rising to £25 million in add-ons, on Godfrey as he remained in blue for four years.

That fee — £20 million up front with the potential to rise to £25 million — was a statement of serious intent from a club that at the time had real ambitions of breaking into the top six of English football. Carlo Ancelotti was the Everton manager when Godfrey arrived, and the Italian’s presence at Goodison Park gave the club a credibility and ambition that attracted players of genuine quality. Godfrey was one of those players — a young, dynamic, technically excellent defender who seemed to have everything needed to develop into one of the Premier League’s elite centre-backs.

For the first two seasons at Goodison Park, those expectations appeared entirely justified. Godfrey was excellent — energetic, reliable, consistently impressive against the best forwards in the league. He earned his two senior England caps during this period, confirmation that at his best, he was operating at a level that the national team management noticed and valued. The future looked extremely bright.

And then, as has happened to so many talented players at crucial moments in their development, a serious injury changed everything. The physical setback and the long recovery process that followed disrupted the momentum that had been building so steadily. By the time Godfrey was fully fit and available again, the landscape around him had shifted — Everton were changing managers, changing systems, and the opportunities were not flowing as freely as they once had.

The move to Atalanta in 2024 for £11 million was the consequence of that disruption — a talented defender leaving a Premier League club at below his peak value because circumstances had conspired against him, heading to Italy for what was supposed to be a fresh start in a new environment under one of Europe’s most innovative managers.

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**The Italian Experience That Did Not Go To Plan**

Atalanta, under Gian Piero Gasperini, are one of the most fascinating and demanding coaching environments in European football. Their pressing system is relentless, their tactical demands are extraordinarily high, and their willingness to develop players in unconventional ways has produced some of the most remarkable individual transformations in recent Serie A history.

But for Godfrey, life in Bergamo did not unfold the way either party had hoped. The 28-year-old spent time at Sheffield United and Brøndby last season — two loan spells that tell the story of a player searching for consistent game time after being unable to break into the Atalanta first team. One Serie A appearance in two years at the club is not the record of a player who has embedded himself into a squad. It is the record of a player who is technically still contracted to a club but has effectively been parked — moved on temporarily while both sides figure out what comes next.

The Sheffield United spell in the Championship was supposed to provide a platform for Godfrey to rediscover his best form and remind the English football world what he was capable of. It did not entirely work out that way — the loan was terminated early, which is never a comfortable development for any player regardless of the specific circumstances. The move to Brøndby in Denmark gave him competitive minutes in a less demanding environment, and his eleven appearances in the Danish Superliga at least kept him match fit and playing regular football heading into the summer.

Rangers are now betting that a proper opportunity — a full season of consistent game time, under a manager who specifically wants him and has a clear tactical role in mind — is all Godfrey needs to rediscover the quality that made him worth £20 million to Everton just six years ago.

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**Why McInnes Specifically Wanted Godfrey**

The detail that matters most in this transfer is not the fee, the loan terms, or even the option to buy. It is the fact that Derek McInnes specifically identified Godfrey as his defensive target and pursued the deal with the kind of personal conviction that only comes from a manager who has done his homework and knows exactly what he wants.

McInnes is not a manager who signs players because they are available or because agents have pushed them his way. His track record across his career — at Aberdeen, at Hearts, and now at Rangers — is of a manager who identifies specific qualities he needs in specific positions and goes after the player who fits those requirements most precisely. Godfrey fits them.

What McInnes needs at the heart of Rangers’ defence is a centre-back who is comfortable with the ball, capable of driving forward from the back, physically dominant in aerial duels, and reliable enough to play consistently across a long domestic and European campaign. Godfrey’s profile — Premier League experience, technical quality developed at Norwich and Everton, physical attributes that make him competitive against the best strikers — addresses all of those requirements simultaneously.

The manager’s own words about the importance of getting the right characters in the building this summer are instructive. McInnes has spoken extensively about the kind of player he wants at Ibrox — professional, hungry, with something to prove, and with the competitive instinct to thrive under the intense scrutiny that comes with playing for Rangers. A 28-year-old England international who has spent two years struggling to get game time at Atalanta and is desperate to prove that his best football is still ahead of him fits that psychological profile perfectly.

Motivated players, hungry to prove a point, in the right environment, often produce their best football. McInnes has built his managerial career on finding those players and giving them exactly the environment they need to flourish.

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**McInnes On His Signings: The Manager’s Vision Takes Shape**

While Godfrey’s arrival has dominated the headlines, it is worth stepping back to look at the broader picture of what McInnes has assembled so far this summer — because the three signings completed or imminent tell a coherent story about the kind of team he is trying to build.

Lawrence Shankland arrived from Hearts as the goalscoring foundation of McInnes’s new Rangers side. The manager’s words about the striker were illuminating, revealing the depth of his knowledge and respect for a player he has worked with across multiple clubs.

McInnes said: “Lawrence being here is an added bonus. He’s someone I know really well and, on the back of the season he’s just had, it’s exciting. Remember, he missed three months. For me, if he hadn’t been injured for those three months he would have got his 30 goals and arguably been the Player of the Year. But he came back at the right time and scored some important goals towards the back end of the season.”

The manager continued: “A few seasons ago, under Steven Naismith, I thought Lawrence was brilliant. The season where he shouldered so much of the responsibility at Hearts, he was the only one who was really scoring regularly. Then the season before I arrived, it wasn’t quite so good for him. I used to watch him doing interviews and I could see the weight of responsibility on him, that burden. And I thought that was unfair on him, that he was the only player at Hearts expected to score goals. I thought he needed a bit of help.”

McInnes added: “I’ve known Lawrence since he was a young boy. I signed him at Pittodrie and when I signed him for last season, it was the gravitas. When he turned up for the pre-season work in Spain, he walked in and I could see how he was with the players. The confidence, the maturity, how he trained, how he behaved, what he demanded. Also, how the other players looked up to him was really quite telling for me.”

Those words reveal a manager who thinks deeply about his players — not just their technical qualities but their personalities, their leadership presence, and the impact they have on the culture of a dressing room. Shankland clearly passed every test McInnes applied. And the implication is clear — every signing this summer is being evaluated not just on what they can do with the ball but on who they are as people and how they will contribute to the environment McInnes is trying to create at Ibrox.

Ross McCrorie’s arrival fits the same pattern — a player McInnes knows personally from their time together at Aberdeen, a right-back with Premier League experience who has developed significantly since leaving Glasgow and is now returning with more maturity, more quality, and a burning desire to justify his return to one of Scottish football’s biggest clubs.

Godfrey is the third piece of that puzzle. And just as with Shankland and McCrorie, the manager has not arrived at this signing by accident. He has identified the player, studied the situation, understood the motivation, and structured a deal that gives both Rangers and the defender exactly what they need from the arrangement.

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**The Option To Buy: Significant For A Reason**

The word used to describe the option to buy in the Godfrey deal was not accidental. Significant. Not standard. Not routine. Significant. That language, coming from sources close to the negotiations, tells you that the fee attached to the option is set at a level that reflects genuine intent on Rangers’ part to make the arrangement permanent if the circumstances justify it.

Rangers are not including an option to buy as a formality or a negotiating courtesy. They are including it because they genuinely believe Godfrey has the potential to be a long-term fixture in their defence — someone who, given a full season of consistent game time in a supportive environment under a manager who trusts him, can rediscover the form that made him one of the more exciting defensive prospects in English football six years ago.

The financial logic is also compelling. Godfrey’s market value has declined significantly from the £20 million Everton paid for him — current estimates place it somewhere between £3 million and £5 million, reflecting two years of minimal first-team football at Atalanta and the loan spells that followed. A permanently discounted fee, secured through an option negotiated now while Godfrey’s value is at its lowest point, could represent extraordinary value if he performs at Ibrox the way his talent suggests he is capable of.

The Raskin money — the £20 million expected from the Belgian midfielder’s imminent sale — gives Rangers the financial firepower to exercise that option without breaking the budget. Spend the loan period evaluating Godfrey. Let the Raskin funds land. And if the evidence at the end of the season supports making the deal permanent, Rangers have the resources and the contractual mechanism to do exactly that.

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**Billy Gilmour’s Approval And The Wider Endorsement**

One interesting detail emerging from coverage of Rangers’ summer business is that Billy Gilmour applauded the Rangers transfer move, with the latest Ibrox deal winning the Napoli star’s approval. Gilmour’s endorsement — from a Scotland international playing at one of Serie A’s biggest clubs — carries weight both in terms of the quality of the signing and in terms of what it signals about the direction Rangers are heading.

When established international players from the broader Scottish football community express approval of Rangers’ recruitment, it sends a message to other potential targets that Ibrox is a place worth considering — a club with ambition, with a clear direction, and with a manager who is building something real rather than simply patching holes.

That reputational dimension of transfer activity is often underestimated. Good signings attract more good signings. Confidence breeds confidence. And the early indications from McInnes’s summer work — Shankland, McCrorie, Godfrey — suggest a manager who knows how to build momentum in a transfer window and use each completed deal to make the next one easier.

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**What Comes Next**

With Godfrey’s medical complete and the paperwork in its final stages, attention at Ibrox is already turning to what comes next in a window that still has significant business to complete.

The Nicolas Raskin situation hangs over everything — a sale that will generate the funds needed for the more ambitious permanent signings that McInnes wants to make. The Lewis Ferguson swap deal with Bologna remains an intriguing possibility. Cammy Devlin’s free transfer from Hearts appears close to completion. Goalkeeper targets are being monitored. And the Luke Graham situation at Dundee adds another potential defensive arrival to a summer that is rapidly taking shape.

But for today, the focus is on Ben Godfrey — a 28-year-old English defender who walked into the Ibrox medical room and walked out knowing that his career has just been given exactly the fresh start it needed, at exactly the right moment, by exactly the right manager.

The medical is done. The deal is close. And Rangers’ summer rebuild has just taken another significant step forward. 🔵⚽💪