Candeias: «I think Rangers was the best thing that happened in my career» [Portuguese] (A Bola)

Daniel Candeias gave an interview to the Portuguese sports newspaper A Bola. With some help from DeepL, I translated the answers concerning his time in Glasgow. Hope you guys enjoy.

How was your experience at Rangers afterwards?

I think that was the best thing that happened in my career. I was at Alaniaspor and when Pedro Caixinha signed for Rangers, after about a month, he got in touch to say he wanted me because he thought I was good for Scottish football, because of my characteristics, due to its similarities to English football. I gave him my word and said yes, I wanted to go because at the time they wanted to sign me from Benfica. I'd already worked with Pedro Caixinha at Nacional and he'd always tried to take me to both Mexico and Qatar, but things didn't happen. As far as I was concerned, I didn't want to hear any more, I wanted to go to Rangers and Rangers were two and a half fantastic years for me. I loved it and I still get messages from Rangers fans today because I think I did a good job even though we weren't champions then. I was adored there and that really stayed with me..

What about the derbies with Celtic?

Those were heated. One of the best matchups I've ever played in my career. I was fortunate to score in one of them, but I didn't win. But just the feeling of scoring in a game like that was incredible and I have great memories of those matches.

You met Portuguese players there again, were you together outside the club?

I met Fábio Cardoso and Dálcio and then Bruno Alves arrived, which helped us a lot. We also had a Colombian and two Mexicans who, because of the way they communicated, were much easier to get along with, and the three of us from Portugal often got together more often, organising dinners with the family to celebrate birthdays or the women going off to their lives together. It turned out to be a good time to adapt, not least because my English wasn't the best at the time, but it was a great help.

(Translated with DeepL.com, but did some minor editing).