Stefan, du bist ein Fussballgott

And for the word “god”, the dictionary according to Gers@OpenFootball usually reads “Goram”. We know our goalies on this website and we know who the best of them was at Ibrox. But comparing Klos to Goram is as unfair as comparing the good looks of your faithful editor to those of someone like, say, David Ginola. It’s simply not fair. Just because I’m stunningly attractive and making a mint from various modelling assignments across the world, just because Mario Testino has refused to photograph anyone other than me for the rest of his career, doesn’t mean to say Ginola’s TOTALLY unattractive to your average woman in the street: Basically, when yer trying to catch up with perfection, there’s stil a hell of a lot of leeway in which to be brilliant.

And brilliant he has been. Stef is lacking in just one department this season - goal-scoring! Of all the guys who played against Dunfermline in last Sunday’s monumental monstrosity of a mental match, only our Deutscher dude had failed to net one for The Rangers during this campaign. And even here he could almost have put things right had that header against Zizkov been a tad more accurate.

Remember it? We’re needing one more goal in extra-time to knock the Czechs out the UEFA Cup and Stef comes up for a Rangers corner. Far from just causing some confusion by his mere presence, he actually got away from his marker, leapt brilliantly above the opposition defenders and connected his nut with the baw. There can seldom have been a bigger “Oooh” at The Brox than when that header went a millimetre or so too high. Few players deserved to score the goal which rescued us from the death more than Stef.

See, that’s what he’s been doing all season - pulling us back from the brink. Had Hartson been allowed to nod home in the first half of the December Old Firm game, we’d never have gone in 3-1 up at half-time and, as the second-half siege demonstrated, we’d never have survived to claim our one, only and pivotal league victory over O’Neill’s side. Point blank, that header. What was it? Four yards out? Closer? What said it all was the look of anguish and disbelief on the fat Welshman’s face as the ball fell BEHIND the net and Stef picked himself up from the reflex tip-over of the year.

At Tynecastle two weeks ago we were struggling to break Hearts down when, again, a win was the only result we could survive on. Hearts mount a counter-attack, De Vries shoots from eight yards, through a pile of bodies, and you can almost see the ball nestling in the back of the net. The black-sleeved arm across the floor and the white-gloved palm-away almost jarred, they were so unexpected. Saves like that tell a team they are not going to score the goals required to beat Rangers.

Saves like the one he pulled off at Ibrox last Sunday also tell Rangers they just will not fail with a man like that behind them. Celtic were 3-0 up at Rugby Park and we were only 3-1 up against Dunfermline. There were 20 minutes left of the season and we were second in the league by a single goal. Craig Brewster broke up field and unleashed a magnificent left-foot shot which had “top corner” stamped all over it.

No-one was expecting Stefan to save it and no-one would have blamed him if he hadn’t. The guy had had little to do all day except watch his striking colleagues possibly pass up the chance to bring the championship back home. Like most of the Rangers support in the stadium, Stef could have ben weary, depressed, distracted. But he doesn’t think that way - that’s not how hes’s wired.

A leap across to his right and the ball is palmed away with World class. A minute later Ronnie de Boer scores the goal which puts us back on top of the league - we’re never knocked back off.

A man who began his Ibrox career with a treble then a double only to experience the low of a trophyless season in 2000/2001 and see the management and chairmanship of the club change to less of a “Champions League footing”. Borussia Dortmund, from whence he came, isn’t exactly a small club and this was a goalie with a Champions League winner’s medal in his pocket. I’m reliably informed his nickname at the Westfallen was “Der Held von Auxerre” (the hero of Auxerre) because of the penalty saves he pulled off to win a UEFA Cup semi in France for the Bundesliga giants. He’d played in both the currently existing European finals by the time he turned 26 - this is a player with a CV which could get him into any league in the world. Yet he’s stuck by us and the ball continues to stick to his hands. Stef’s rode the storm as well as anyone and he deserved his SPL medal last week perhaps more than any other Ranger:

He’s our only ever-present this season. This alone isn’t necessarily enough to take him pst Captain Bazz in player-of-the-season stakes. Barry has waned slightly under the pain of his pelvic problem and he missed a few games through suspension. De Boer took over superbly in Bazz’s absence and compliments him beautifully when they play together. Rangers proved they have a winning “spine” with Craig Moore and Big Amo performing masterfully in central defence. But Stef’s been there always and performed to the same level always - doing what you need him to do WHEN you need him to do it and sometimes a whole lot more by way of a bonus.

Receiving his Man of the Match award from Chick Young after that pre-Christmas win over celtic, we saw and heard as genuine and modest a guy as you’re likely to meet. On his way to that interview, the ground rocking and his team-mates celebrating the final whistle, the cameras caught Stef in a moment of private celebration. Just a little look to the heavens and a shake of those gloved fists. He was saying to himself “Yes - we needed that and we got it - we’re on for the championship!” As always, he knows when the real test is upon us and he’s seldom found wanting.

His unassuming nature is, I feel, probably why Stef missed out on even being nominated for the major Player of The Year awards in Scotland. At Ibrox we have Barry Ferguson who is that rarity in modern football - a brilliant Scot. That’ll always grab the extra limelight, especially when he’s captain of Rangers and especially when he’s been the most exciting player in Scotland this season. We also have Amo who, even if he has a stinker, is still the most colourful guy on any pitch in the world. And we have Ronald de Boer - Dutch, a magician on the ball, always up for a press conference, always talking the talk then walking the walk. There are guys in this now famous Rangers side who steal the limelight ahead of Stefan but there’s few in the world who can fill his position with such reliability.

That’s why tomorrow, in the North Stand at Hampden, you might just spot a German flag with the message “Stefan, du bist ein Fussballgott” sprayed rather haphazardly across it. Anyone who has read Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger’s brilliant English-language history of German football, Tor!, will know all about the West Germany side which won the 1954 World Cup (and anyone who hasn’t read Tor! , published by When Saturday Comes books, should do so NOW - it’s one for the pantheon). That side’s goalkeper, Toni Turek, drew the phrase “you’re a footballing god” from Radio commentator Herbert Zimmermann when making a great save from one of the Hungary Golden Squad in the famous Berne final of 54. Hesse-Lichtenberger tells us this commentary is even more famous in Germany than Kenneth Wolstenhome’s “They think it’s all over” is in England.

Here’s hoping Stef spots the flag in the crowd and realises how much we love him … after keeping another clean sheet to wrap up another Treble for us, of course!

Had I a bigger readership, had I ANY readership, had I less of a fate-tempting phobia, I would have tried to organise something more comprehensive by way of a tribute. We used the 2000 Cup final to praise the Dutch influence by all dressing in orange. Well, I’d thought perhaps we could all have worn the Stef goalie top on the same stage in 2003: Okay, perhaps a sea of black isn’t the most colourful - or celebratory! - but it sure as hell would strike a note with that man between the sticks. Or maybe the Bears in the North stand could have worn the black Rangers replica goalie jersey, those in the West stand could sport the red version and the Bluenoses in the South stand would be attired in the yellow top and thus a huge German flag would be formed round half of Hampden … and we could all have worn white gloves too … and …

Och, maybe next year. In the meantime, against Dundee in the Scottish Cup Final of 2002/2003, gonnae give Stef a shout or two of affection … maybe even try to start a song for him … because he bl**dy deserves it!