Rangers Close In On £12m MLS Forward: Is This Deal Actually Worth It?

Rangers Close In On £12m MLS Forward: Is This Deal Actually Worth It? Rangers are in active negotiations with Portland Timbers over striker Kevin Kelsy, according to a report relayed by journalist Adrian Garces . The player has already signalled his willingness to move to Scotland, giving the deal a genuine chance of being completed before the window shuts. Rangers in talks with Portland Timbers over Kevin Kelsy The problem right now is money. Portland want £12 million for the 22-year-old Venezuelan international, while Rangers have put £10 million on the table. That £2 million gap hasn’t closed yet, but Garces believes the two clubs will get there. Rangers are working against the clock, having lost Youssef Chermiti to a season-ending ACL injury that tore a hole in their forward line. Kelsy is the name they’ve settled on to fill it. Honest assessment: Is this deal actually worth it for Rangers? PORTLAND, OREGON – MAY 09: Kevin Kelsy #19 celebrates with Jose Caicedo #30 of Portland Timbers following the MLS match against Sporting Kansas City at Providence Park on May 09, 2026 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images) Kelsy’s physical profile is genuinely unusual. Being 6 feet 4 inches tall, he carries an aerial threat, but he doesn’t sacrifice pace for it. It is a combination that’s rare and genuinely useful in the Scottish Premiership, where games are physical and spaces open on the counter. His numbers back the interest too. Nine goals in 20 MLS appearances for Portland, averaging a goal roughly every 138 minutes. For a club scrambling to replace Chermiti’s output right now, that efficiency is hard to ignore. But strip away the athletic positives, and the concerns stack up fast. His passing accuracy sits somewhere between 78% and 83%, and it drops further when he’s pressed. That’s a problem. A striker who struggles to link play under pressure will cause Rangers ‘ attacking structure to seize up against sides that sit deep, and plenty of Scottish Premiership clubs do exactly that. His performance against Chicago Fire, zero shots on target, 0.18 xG, minimal pressing work, is the kind of match that puts the inconsistency question in sharp focus. Paying £10 million for a 22-year-old with six Venezuela caps and one strong MLS season is a bet on what Kelsy might become, not what he already is. If Rangers stretch to that fee, they eat a major slice of their remaining summer budget on a player who hasn’t been tested outside MLS. The centre-back search they still need to resolve could suffer for it. High ceiling, shaky floor, and real financial consequences either way.