Cuellar keeps a tight grip on prospects of unforgettable year

As a boyhood Real Madrid fan, it was only natural for Carlos Cuellar to dream of playing for them in the temple that is the Bernabeu Stadium. Instead, tonight, via Numancia and Osasuna, his career highlight so far will involve pulling on a No 24 jersey for Rangers – relative paupers on the European stage – and giving what he hopes will be yet another match-winning performance against Zenit St Petersburg in the Uefa Cup final.

The 26-year-old centre-back, signed last year by Walter Smith for £2.3m, insists he would have it no other way. He is already an Ibrox hero with a risqué terrace song to his name, and has just been voted the Scottish Football Writers' Association's Footballer of the Year. Thoughts that he should have stayed in La Liga with Osasuna, where he impressed Smith when they knocked Rangers out of last season's Uefa Cup, could not be further from his mind.

"When you leave from maybe the best league in the world to play somewhere like Scotland, the reaction is the same from everyone," he says. They ask, 'Are you crazy? Why are you moving? You are in the best league with the best players.'

"But here at Rangers, I have the possibility to play in the Champions League. I have the possibility to win the league. I have won the CIS Cup and could now win the Uefa Cup then the Scottish Cup.

"OK, when you play for Barça or Real, you are the best. But, when you play for a normal team in Spain, you rarely even get a chance to play in Europe. So I think I made the best choice. Hopefully, I will prove that in Manchester."

As Smith has said time and again, the bedrock of his team, who tonight at the City of Manchester Stadium play the 64th game of an extraordinary quadruple-chasing campaign, is Cuellar and his defensive partner, David Weir, who turned 38 last Saturday.

If the Spanish half of the duo cannot be called pin-up material (one of his early and rather cruel nicknames was "Ugly Betty" after the TV character with similar curly hair and goofy smile), then his work at the back has been of the highest order.

It has also earned him the accolade of his own ditty from the fans, to the tune of "Too Good To Be True" and with lyrics about the supporters not being able to take their eyes off him. The pay-off line, for the purposes of this family newspaper, involves the suggestion that Cuellar is so good that the average fan would not mind him getting acquainted with the aforementioned average fan's wife.

So chuffed is Cuellar with the song that at a recent media day at Rangers he sang a few bars of the song before blushing and having to stop. "At every team I've been part of the supporters have been great with me, they have appreciated me. But at Rangers it is very special," he says. "They always appreciated me as a player in Spain but it is nothing compared to what has happened here.

"I don't feel special during games when I hear this song, I am too concentrated on the game. But it is very important that you have a good understanding with the supporters. I love the fact that they want me here and appreciate me."

Cuellar's sporting background is impressive. He competed at international junior level in the 1500m and might have become a middle-distance runner. "When I was 16 or 17 I had to make a decision and, in the end, I decided that I liked football more than athletics. It was a big choice because I had possibilities to become a professional athlete and compete for Spain all over Europe. But, deep down, I knew that my dream was always to be a professional footballer."

He says he is settled in Scotland and for the foreseeable future wants to stay. The only things he misses are his pet snake, a boa constrictor called Titan, and his dog, neither of which have been able to come to Britain with him.

With his transfer value having possibly quadrupled already, Rangers may, at some stage, be forced to cash in on him, but it is not something he envisages any time soon.

"I love everything about life in Scotland. I don't play golf – I can't. I tried to learn in Spain and had to give up, I was so bad. So after training I go to Starbucks, ask for 'One caffe latte to take away, please' in my best English, then maybe go into the city centre and meet friends. After that, I go home and have a quiet time."

His play is as uncomplicated as his lifestyle (clear, clear and clear again), but, as he hopes to show tonight, extremely effective.

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