(Football news) Rangers defender Calvin Bassey is set to join Ajax and the deal is expected to complete his medical in the next few days. The deal will see Rangers receive over £20million. When the performance-related bonuses are taken into consideration, the transfer fee could eclipse Kieran Tierney’s move from Celtic to Arsenal, which was around £25million. It is understood a 10 per cent sell-on clause has also been negotiated in the players contract.

Several Premier League clubs including the likes of Aston Villa, West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion, were very keen on the Nigerian defender and he was heavily scouted by sides from Italy, Portugal, France and Germany. It is understood that Rangers made it clear to other clubs that they wanted a Scottish transfer record fee, resulting in several teams dropping out of the race to sign him. The 22-year-old was signed from Leicester for £230,000 two years ago and until November was mostly used as a reserve left-back, but Bassey’s performances in central defence on the road to the Europa League final caught the attention of clubs all over Europe and he subsequently will now become Rangers’ record transfer sale.

Bassey had numerous options but he has chosen Ajax due to their history of developing young players and the opportunity for him to continue playing regular first-team football. The Dutch side have signed him as a replacement for Lisandro Martinez who joined Manchester United yesterday. Talks accelerated with Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson in recent days and  Bassey was left out of the squad that faced Blackpool in Saturday’s 2-1 friendly victory. It will be the most that Ajax have ever spent on a defender and this will comfortably break the £16.5million fee Rangers received for Nathan Patterson in January from Everton.

Rangers play their first opening Champions League qualifier as they have pre-season friendlies to come against West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur. Van Bronckhorst in this summer has brought in five players this summer but Bassey’s exit will leave him with another gap in the squad to fill, after Joe Aribo was sold this month to Southampton for £10 million. New York City FC loanee James Sands started alongside Connor Goldson in Bassey’s absence while Barisic scored the opening goal from left-back which could be the new defence for next season. Arsenal loanee Leon Balogun left after his loan expired and Filip Helander suffered a fresh injury and Bassey’s departure means Van Bronckhorst will have the funds to go back into the market to potentially one or two defenders.

Also read: Liverpool agree deal to sell Ben Davies to Rangers for £4m