FC Panathinaikos announces the signing of Cyril Dessers! The 30-year-old Nigerian striker signed a three-year contract and becomes the tenth addition to the roster for the current season.
Cyril Dessers was born on December 8, 1994, in Tongeren, Belgium. He began his football career in the academies of local Belgian clubs (Zwaluw Vechmaal, Union Ruiten, Tongeren) before joining first the academy of Sint-Truiden and later that of Leuven.
At 21, he transferred to Lokeren, where he not only played several matches in the Belgian championship but also in the Europa League. In the 2016–17 season, he moved to the Netherlands for NAC Breda (then a second-division team), where he scored 22 goals in a single season, immediately earning a move to Utrecht. He stayed there for two years, once again featuring in the Europa League, and in 2019 he moved to Heracles, where he became the top scorer of the Dutch championship with 15 goals.
That was his passport to further success, as in 2020 Belgian side Genk spent €4 million to sign him. He stayed one season before being loaned to Feyenoord—and they didn’t regret it. Dessers became the top scorer of the Conference League with 10 goals, while also netting another 9 in the league. Genk took him back in the summer of 2022, but the offer from Italian Serie A side Cremonese was impossible to turn down. The Italian club failed to stay in the division, and that was the opportunity seized by Scottish side Rangers to sign him in 2023. In Scotland, he scored relentlessly: 22 goals in all competitions in his first season, and 29 in the second—when he also became the league’s top scorer!
In his career, he has won one Cup in Scotland and one in Belgium.
Dessers chose to represent the Nigerian national team, the country of his mother’s origin (his father is Belgian). He has 8 caps and 3 goals for Nigeria.
At Panathinaikos, he will have number 33 on his shirt.
We welcome Cyril to Panathinaikos family!
