Leon Balogun reveals biggest Rangers change, why he holds David Weir 'dearly' and lifts lid on his past

The 35-year-old Nigerian is one of many success stories under new manager Philippe Clement and after helping the Ibrox club defeat Motherwell 2-0 to cut the gap with Premiership leaders to Celtic to just two points, the Nigerian revealed what the biggest difference has been under the Belgian, who has won 13 and drawn three of his first 16 games in charge.

“That is a good question,” said Balogun. “I think he is very demanding in his ways and he is challenging us every day. He has got very high demands. That is not to say he is some sort of dictator or anything, but he is very meticulous in the way he wants to work and he reminds us in every given moment that we need to keep these standards up constantly, whether that is in the training sessions, in the game at half-time.

“Everybody is constantly on their toes. The way he wants to work is just something everyone had to adapt to and it is almost automatic, when you are trying to meet his expectations it just goes up.”

Balogun is not the only Rangers player to sing Clement’s praises since replacing Michael Beale in October. The former Monaco boss has extremely high demands but nobody at Ibrox is shirking the challenge. Clement wants his players to be 24/7 athletes and Balogun is keen to embrace such a mindset.

“I am 35, I have been trying to live like that for a few years now in order to add some years towards the end,” he said. “It is not working out so bad for me. We are very privileged as footballers to be doing what we are doing. There comes a lot of joy with it, a lot of nice things come with being a footballer. A lot of sacrifice as well.

“But we have all the time in the world. You need to work on your craft all the time to be the best version that you can be. If you want to win trophies, if you want to play for the best teams in the world then you need to make sure that you are constantly at it.

"I think that should be a given. I know sometimes if you look out in the world at some players it seems like the enjoyment factor gets more focus.”

Balogun is in peak condition right now and when it was put to him that another defender, David Weir, played for Rangers until he was 40, the ex-QPR man admitted he takes inspiration from the ex-centre-half.

“I hold him very dearly,” he said of Weir. “I have never met him but I played with his son, Jensen, at Wigan. He was somebody who recommended me at some point without ever meeting me.

"I hold him in very high regard. He is a good role model. A good number as well. Maybe I can make it.”

When you hear Balogun speak about his back story, you can understand why he is so happy at Rangers. He became a fans’ favourite during his first spell at the club and brought back by Beale in the summer, he has become Clement’s first-choice centre-half alongside Connor Goldson.

Athletic with good positional sense, he is one of the main reasons why Rangers have excelled domestically. Left out of the club’s Europa League squad, he is surely a stick-on to be included come March’s last-16 ties. His philosophical outlook on his career and what he has been through explains why success at Ibrox means so much to him.

“I don’t know how much you know about me but in one point in my career, I think I was 26, my career hadn’t really kicked off,” Balogun explained. “I played in a team that just got relegated from the Bundesliga, Dusseldorf, I got my national team debut and broke my metatarsal three months before my contract expired. I came back in on crutches and was told that I was getting released. I was supposed to be in the World Cup squad in 2014 and missed out. I was about six months in unemployment status.

"Since then, when I found a team in the second league, we got promoted, and I have tried to look at my career like it can be over like this. That is also something I am trying to pass on. I said it the other week, for me to be back at Rangers, which is a club that I love and learned to love during the first spell, it is a massive privilege every day.”

Balogun does not baulk at the heavy schedule.

“I think if you play for Rangers, in my case at least and that is probably the same for most of the boys who have been here for some time, you are used to it,” he said. “When I first came here they told me on average you play 55, 60 games. Wow! That is a big number, that. But you have to prepare for it.

"The manager, the whole staff like the sports science, the medical staff, everybody keeps us on our toes so that we get the treatment, we do the add-ons in terms of cryotherapy. You get groomed for it and you get prepared for it and you follow the flow.”