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Jermain Defoe has explained how much winning the Scottish Premiership meant to him – and how he and his team-mates were inspired by a recent documentary on NBA legend Michael Jordan.
Defoe, who will turn 39 in October of this year, played a limited but significant role in Steven Gerrard’s side claiming their first top-flight championship since 2011, scoring four goals in 15 Premiership appearances throughout the 2020/21 campaign.
With his career starting to wind down, Defoe has turned his attention towards the future and recently signed on in a new capacity as player/coach at Ibrox for the forthcoming season and the veteran striker has been reflecting on some of the techniques used to fuel the club’s burning desire on route to the club’s 55th title.
The Last Dance – the Netflix docu-series based on the exploits of Jordan during his incredible basketball career and the final year of the Chicago Bulls dynasty – helped inspire Defoe, as the former Spurs and England hitman ended a 21-year wait for a league title.
Defoe told the Rangers official souvenir magazine: “Winning silverware was one of the main reasons that I came here.
“When I sat down with the manager he spoke about the main objective which was to obviously win the league title.
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“It’s been many years for Rangers to have to wait and 55 league titles is something that we spoke about in that initial meeting.
“As soon as he said that to me I wanted to be a part of it. I knew that to do that together would be special and we’ve managed to do it. I can’t put into words how much it means to me.
“Watching that Michael Jordan documentary over lockdown, I got goosebumps.
“The interesting thing for me was that people think about all the trophies that Jordan won but in the first few years he didn’t win anything.
“You watch that and think ‘wow, I want to have that feeling and be in a dressing room where you achieve something special like that’.
“We all came back and all the boys were talking about it. We all just said that we can achieve this and we can get that feeling if we want.
“We’ve got the players and at that point new players would come in as well, and everyone was just so hungry from day one.
“We just wanted to do it so bad and that’s where the hunger came from.
“That weekend [clinching the title mathematically] was emotional – it was the longest match I have ever watched in my life!
“On a personal level it’s special for me but also for my family – my mum, my sister and everyone that’s been with me from the beginning.
“My family has always known that it means so much to me and I always wanted to win a league. You can win cups here and there but to win a title and be the best team, that’s so special.
“If I think about my career and what I’ve achieved and all the goals I’ve scored, I would take away 200 goals to have that moment where you have won a league title – but if you have it both it’s even better!
“That’s how much it means, winning the title is on a different level.”
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