This lethal version of Amad — the one who has scored the winner against Manchester City, the equaliser against Liverpool and inspired a comeback against Southampton with a 12-minute hat-trick — is not the same as the player who spent six months on loan at Rangers three years ago.
He was barely used by Giovanni van Bronckhorst, starting just six of a possible 29 games as Rangers missed out on the league title to Celtic, won the Scottish Cup and lost the Europa League final to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties.
On Thursday, as Manchester United host Rangers in the same competition, he will look to show his former club what they could have had. Or, rather, just how dramatically he has improved since what was expected to be his first extended spell of first-team football.
After signing late in the January window in the 2021-22 season, there was a sense of expectation given Amad had arrived at Old Trafford from Atalanta just a year earlier in a deal worth up to £37million ($45.6m).
For the first few days, he was protected by the fanfare over Rangers’ deadline-day signing of Aaron Ramsey from Juventus. But when he scored five minutes into his debut away to Ross County, it looked like Rangers had loaned the next big thing.
But they conceded in the 96th minute in Dingwall to draw 3-3, which saw Rangers go into the Old Firm derby at Celtic Park four days later just two points ahead of their rivals, having led by seven points a month earlier.
Amad was hooked at half-time with Rangers 3-0 down. It was 45 minutes in which he looked shell-shocked by the intensity of the game. Ange Postecoglou’s side went a point clear and it meant that every game from there on in became a must-win for Rangers. It was a high-stakes environment that Van Bronckhorst quickly decided was too fraught to place his faith in a 19-year-old who had only played five senior games in Italy and England before arriving at Ibrox.
“All of us wavered that night against Celtic and we were really poor, but Amad probably took that biggest hit,” the former Rangers midfielder Scott Arfield tells The Athletic.
“It was a massive game and Celtic were at their peak that night under Ange. It probably did surprise him with the intensity but at Rangers and Celtic, there is constant pressure and you don’t get that time to settle into it. Gio probably just wanted to change up the team after that and he (Amad) couldn’t get back in.”
Amad celebrates scoring against Ross County in January 2022 (Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
One backroom staff member, speaking anonymously like others in this story to protect relationships, recalls that they feared for him when they found out Van Bronckhorst was going to play him from the start.
Amad did not start any of Rangers’ next 13 league games but he was brought on at Tannadice Park with Rangers trailing Dundee United 1-0 in the February. When he jumped out of a 60-40 challenge, the travelling fans let their displeasure be known, but it was nothing compared to the reaction when he missed a big chance to win the game in the final few minutes.
He was played straight through on goal, and Fashion Sakala was begging for the ball to be squared so he could tap it in. Amad ignored him, hit the post and, after hurdling the advertising boards, lay flat on his back as the travelling Rangers fans went berserk at what they saw as a selfish decision.
It was a Sliding Doors moment in the title race but Rangers had a welcome distraction from their domestic ills in the form of an unexpected Europa League run.
They beat Borussia Dortmund, Red Star Belgrade, Braga and RB Leipzig on the way to the Europa League final in Seville, but Amad did not make it off the bench in any of their nine fixtures.
Witnessing his emergence this season at one of the biggest clubs in the world, following an impressive loan spell at Sunderland in the Championship, there are some Rangers fans who will be confused as to why they did not see more than just flashes of quality.
Those who shared those six months with him saw his quality every day, though, and one staff member recalls a moment in one of his early training sessions when he was through on goal, facing legendary goalkeeper Allan McGregor.
Amad feigned to shoot, which saw McGregor take the bait and dive to the floor, before dinking it over him. It sent his team-mates into hysterics as the goalkeeper was not someone people would mess with lightly.
“You could see the quality instantly,” says Arfield. “If you had asked me: ‘Did I think he would go on to have a good career?’, I’d have said definitely, but for one of the biggest clubs in the world? I’d have said probably no, but maybe a mid-table Premier League team, or in Italy or Spain where it’s technical.
“What I will say is that he had one of the best attributes you can have as a professional footballer: being the best trainer every day. The sessions the day after a game are mostly for the boys not playing, so they can be a grind but, honestly, he was bang on it. He was a monster every single day with his quality and his work rate.
“After one of the European away games, we stayed over and had a session the next morning. It was one of those where you’re thinking: ‘Let’s just get through this’ as there were only 10 of us or something like that.
“Me and him ended up kicking lumps out of each other in the small games, but he was so game for it. He was a joke that day. He gave as good as he got, he was serious about his profession. I thought: ‘For a guy on his contract at United to be putting in this work, fair play’. That’s probably why he’s done so well at Sunderland and United as I bet he is the best trainer every day.”
Despite showing those levels in training, Van Bronckhorst chose to rotate the right-wing position between five other players. Ramsey, Aribo, Arfield, Sakala and Scott Wright all played ahead of Amad.
“I was very surprised he didn’t play at certain times,” says Arfield.
“You thought with (James) Tavernier overlapping behind him, Amad, with his left foot, would have helped us a lot cutting in. It just never materialised. Some styles go together and some don’t. There are lessons in everything.
Amad scores against Rangers for United in a pre-season friendly at Murrayfield in June 2024 (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“His guile to go past people was mental. It reminded me of when I was in the Premier League (with Burnley). The biggest difference was the high speed at which these players go past people. It looks easy on TV but up close, it is different. You could see he had skill but it was the ability to protect the ball and wriggle out of tight areas that was great.”
The right-wing position was one where Rangers had failed to find a permanent solution for a while before signing Amad in late January. Van Bronckhorst, who had taken over two months earlier, did not hold as much power over recruitment as Steven Gerrard did after arriving in 2018 with the club at a low ebb.
He had a clear outline of which profiles he likes for each position, and on the wing, he wanted a pacey, direct, one-vs-one winger. Amad was watched by the scouting team but there was only Premier League 2 footage to really base an opinion on, which is under-23 level.
A member of staff recalls a meeting being arranged, including Van Bronckhorst, to look at clips, and the Rangers boss being impressed by how the Ivorian showed up. Rangers faced competition from other teams from Europe’s top five leagues to land him but former sporting director Ross Wilson managed to persuade Amad that Rangers would be ideal preparation for life at the pressure cooker of Manchester United.
Rangers viewed the deal as being risk-free since there were no strings attached to the deal which required him to play a certain amount of minutes or face a financial penalty.
Amad arrived with his long-term girlfriend and was considered very low-maintenance, but he was very quiet and the British players had to speak slowly for him to understand.
“Amad was a really good guy. Far from the loudest in the changing room but was always smiling,” says Nnamdi Ofoborh, who was sidelined for the entirety of his time at Rangers due to a heart issue but filled his time by observing training and immersing himself in the dressing room.
“He fitted in comfortably. Funnily enough, he had a small friendship group with (Zambian forward) Sakala and (Polish squad player) Mateusz Zukowski. I don’t know what language they spoke but they went everywhere together.
“As for him as a player, he was technically so good. It was really exciting every time he got the ball and, what people don’t know, is how strong he is for his size. To me and probably most in the team, it’s no real surprise he is doing what he is doing now for United. He trained exactly how he plays today.”
There was a sense among some staff that Amad was still a boy in some ways when he arrived. A staff member believes that because Van Bronckhorst was a details-heavy coach who changed the pressing shape in every single game, Amad perhaps struggled to convince that he could implement the manager’s strategy in high-pressure European games.
Amad and team-mates after Rangers booked their place in the 2021-22 Europa League final (Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
“It was tough for Amad,” says former Rangers goalkeeper Andy Firth.
“We had good options on the front line and (Ryan) Kent was unplayable on that run to Seville, so the team almost picked itself in those big European games. For Gio, every game was huge and we had a tight core of probably 13 or 14 players who we knew would be the XI.
“He was really sharp in training and you could see he had the talent, but maybe it was just a bit too early for him and he didn’t quite have that physicality at the time to play week in, week out. Scotland is obviously a really physical league and playing so many games that year; it was a big step.
“He was a really nice lad. Humble and was always on board, even when he wasn’t playing. He wasn’t cocky or arrogant, but you could tell he backed himself and trusted his ability. It was probably a really good learning curve for him although he didn’t play as much as he would have wanted. He probably just needed a decent run of games to find his feet properly in British football and Sunderland saw the benefits of that.”
Amad did have a highlight, and a winner’s medal, from his six months as he started May’s Scottish Cup final victory over Hearts. He came off after 63 minutes as Rangers scored two extra-time goals to win the trophy but, even when he was not central to the action, he still endeared himself by how invested he was in the team’s success.
There was no better display of that than after Rangers beat Leipzig 3-1 at Ibrox to seal their place in the Europa League final. Amad was dancing on the shoulders of his team-mates with a Union Jack bucket hat on his head.
“Thanks guys it was a pleasure to be part of your beautiful trip…wish you all the best,” was his parting message to Rangers on Twitter.
Two and a half years later, Amad will be on the opposite side. Staring back at Rangers will not be a 19-year-old trying to find his way in the game. Ominously, it will be a 22-year-old who is turning into United’s quiet assassin.
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(Top photo: Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
