Novo, Nacho

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Nacho Novo

Personal Information

Full Name:Ignacio Javier Gómez Novo

Height:1.75 meters

Date Of Birth:26/03/1979

City Of Birth:Ferrol

Country Of Birth:Spain

Club Information

Shirt Number: 10

Position: Forward

Debut:7/8/2004 vs Aberdeen (a) 0-0

Ignacio Javier Gómez Novo, simply known as Nacho Novo, was the second Spaniard in history to play for Rangers.

Novo formerly played for Huesca in Spain then moved to Scotland with Raith Rovers and Dundee. In July 2004, he moved to Rangers for £450,000. During his first season at the club he scored 25 goals and won a league and League Cup double. He had to wait four years before lifting the league championship again in the 2008/09 season, where he also scored the winning goal in the 2009 Scottish Cup Final which won him his second double. Novo stated his desire to play for Rangers for the rest of his career but unfortunately that didn't happen as he moved to La Liga side Sporting Gijon 21st May 2010.

Move to Rangers

Novo signed for Rangers on 6 July 2004 for a reported fee of £450,000. He was allocated the number 10 shirt that had been vacated by Michael Mols. In his first season at the club he scored 25 goals, including the goal against Hibernian that won Rangers the league title.He made his debut for Rangers in a SPL match away to Aberdeen on 7 August 2004. His first goal came in his second appearance, netting in Rangers 2-1 loss to Russian side CSKA Moscow on 10 August.

Following his first goal Novo failed to score in his next eight appearances and pressure mounted on the little Spaniard as he was dropped from the starting eleven. The sides stuttering early season form did not help him either but things began to improve when he came on as a 66th minute subsititute in a league match against his former employers Dundee. Novo netted two goals in as many minutes which helped Rangers to a 2-0 victory, after that he was a regular in the Rangers side.

At the start of the season Novo broke his fifth metatarsal, which ruled him out for several months. Upon his return from injury he failed to score in the twenty matches he played the rest of that season, being deployed more as a winger than a striker due to the form of Kris Boyd. His three goals had come against Celtic, Falkirk and Cypriot club Anorthosis Famagusta.

With the departure of Alex McLeish and the arrival of Frenchman Paul Le Guen, Novo looked set to leave Rangers. However, a proposed transfer to English First Division club Coventry City fell through on transfer deadline day. Initially Novo found his appearances sporadic, featuring in the first game of the season then waiting seven weeks for his second but after a mixture of poor results, injuries and his good performances for the reserves Novo returned to the first team. His first goal of that season, and in over a year, was during a 3-2 UEFA Cup win over A.S. Livorno Calcio on 19 October 2006. The following match, Novo came off the bench to score a late winner against St Mirren in a 3-2 win. He then started the next game, Motherwell held Rangers to a 1-1 draw with Novo named Man of the Match. His rejuvenated form continued with goals against Hearts, Maccabi Haifa and AJ Auxerre. Novo continued to be a regular when Le Guen was replaced with Walter Smith.

The signings of strikers in the summer of 2007 led to increased competition for attacking positions and most of Novo's appearances in the early months of the season were as a substitute. On 20 October 2007 he started the first Old Firm derby match of the season and scored twice in a 3–0 victory for Rangers over Celtic. On the 2 December 2007 it was reported that Rangers were willing to offer Novo a one year extension to his current contract, which was to expire in July 2008. However, Novo said that he would leave the club if he wasn't offered a longer contract. He was later offered a two-year contract extension, which expires in the summer of 2010, and signed the deal on 21 December 2007.

On 1 May 2008, he scored the winning penalty in the semi final shoot-out against ACF Fiorentina which put Rangers through to the 2008 UEFA Cup Final. During the 2007-08 season Novo was sent off twice, both in league games before cup finals, meaning he missed both the 2008 League Cup final and the 2008 Scottish Cup final through suspension. The 2008-09 season saw Novo used almost exclusively as a substitute. He came off the bench in the 2009 Scottish Cup Final to score the winning goal after only being on the field for 28 seconds.

Novo secured Rangers' first win of 2010 in the 1-0 win over Hamilton, scoring the only goal with 13 minutes left. He dedicated this goal to his new son, Javier, who was born just a week previous. His form out on the left side of midfield, an unfamiliar position for him, in the month of December coupled with the form of numerous other players saw Rangers play their best football for years. He would end the season a title winner for the third time in his Rangers career and although some would argue he's worth a place in the Hall of Fame, immediately he doesn't meet the full criteria. He hasn't earnt any caps for Spain although that would be hard considering they are European Champions and went on the longest unbeaten run in international football history (35 games) plus he doesn't have "exceptional ability". That isn't slagging him in any way; he just isn't a Laudrup or a Gazza. Another thing that we love him for is how he always gets a chance to wind up Celtic and Aiden McGeady in particular. After the 2008/09 title triumph he taunted the Irishman saying he's got his trophy. McGeady was on camera poking fun at us when we lost it in 2008. If the first time wasn't good enough, he did it a second time! The team went back to Ibrox for the celebrations and he was delighted at getting his hands on "McGeady's trophy" once more.

Like a few players in the squad, Nacho's contract was up at the end of the season and each week passed without a resolution. He signed for Sporting Gijon and hopefully he can give them some more firepower as they were one of the lowest scorers in Spain's top flight. Despite most of his appearances coming off the bench, we will definitely miss Nacho and he's gave us a lot of memories over the years, most notably that penalty and his goal on Helicopter Sunday. I'm sure it won't be too long before he's back amongst the Rangers fans as he's stated he will come back to support the side. His departure coincided with the release of his autobiography 'I Said No Thanks' - which went to the top of the Scottish book charts with 5000 copies sold in 2 days. You can read an excerpt from it below.

There's only one Nacho Novo...

I Said No Thanks

I can accept that it may be difficult to track down who hit Fernando or Dr Jackson (with coins) but I still can't for the life of me work out why more has not been done in the easier instances to investigate. A mobile phone was thrown at me. Perhaps it was a pay as you go sim card? Perhaps it never had any numbers stored such as 'home' for example. But I find that pretty hard to believe. Surely it can't be all that difficult to track down who threw a phone? Maybe i'm underestimating the level of work required for this task.

It must be much more difficult than I imagine although it does make me wonder how any criminals are ever arrested in this country.

Perhaps it's the complete apathy towards finding anyone who wants to target me that breeds confidence in these kinds of people. Certainly, to hear a group of Celtic fans singing about me dying from a bullet from the IRA at an under 19s Youth Cup Final at Hampden makes me think no one is concerned about the consequences of such behaviour.........

I think it's bizarre the amount of people who take the moral high ground and condemn Rangers fans for singing songs that they find offensive. Football is a sport that's always had an edge to it. Fans of clubs all over the world sing disgusting songs including ones worse than i've ever heard in Scotland. The hypocrisy of Aberdeen fans would make me laugh if it wasn't so serious.

An element of their fans think it's okay to sing about 66 people that died in the Ibrox disaster or about Ian Durrant's injury. It's not, it's vile. Yet they are quick to condemn Rangers fans. They sing homophobic chants which are aimed at me, yet act all outraged at my regrettable reaction. I read comments about how it offended young children at the game - were the parents okay with exposing their children to chants of a homophobic nature? The English police investigated Tottenham fans for similar chants aimed at Sol Campbell.

Sadly, in Scotland, it seems only songs that Rangers fans sing are the ones that anyone appears to find very offensive. Our fans are constantly chastised for singing songs or chants but to me it seems like there's a bit of an agenda there, even though there are some songs that our own supporters must stop singing.

I'm proud to say that no matter what happens in the future i'll always be a Ranger and no one can take that away from me. I may not have been born a Ranger, nor manufactured a Ranger like a true Ranger. I understand and I need no explanation. Hopefully i've served this famous club well and i've stayed true to the values and principles that make the club and the fans the best in the world. We truly are the people.

Career statistics

Season	League		Cup		League Cup		European		Friendlies		Total
Season	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
2004/05	35	19	1	0	4	3	8	3	6	5	54	30
2005/06	24	2	2	0	1	0	5	1	2	1	34	4
2006/07	28	5	1	0	2	0	8	3	7	-	46	8
2007/08	28	10	4	2	3	2	13	2	3	2	51	18
2008/09	29	5	3	2	4	2	2	-	6	2	44	11
2009/10	35	6	4	1	4	1	6	1	5	2	54	11
Total	179	47	15	5	18	8	42	10	29	12	283	82