Fans can’t believe how young A-list TV star is in incredible throwback photo showing how life could have been VERY different for him

A picture has resurfaced of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay donning the colours of Rangers during his playing days.

Before Ramsay, 58, shot to fame for his culinary skills and his foul-mouthed rants on television, he sought a career in the beautiful game.

While he was never quite able to break through and become a professional, he did have quite a nifty youth career.

Ramsay started at Oxford United before being spotted by a scout employed by his beloved Rangers when he was aged 15.

And a photo of the chef wearing a Rangers kit alongside his team-mates before a testimonial match in 1985 has come to light again.

It was one of the very few appearances he made for the Scottish outfit and serves as proof that life could have been very different for Ramsay.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s career could have gone down an entirely different path.

A photo of Ramsay, aged 18, (middle row, extreme left)preparing to play a testimonial match for Gers has once again emerged.

Shortly after this photo was taken Ramsay would get an injury that ended his football career.

Ramsay has gone on to achieve incredible things in the kitchen after creating his restaurant group Gordon Ramsay Restaurants back in 1997. He currently holds eight Michelin stars but has been awarded a mammoth 17 during his career.

However, his first love affair was football. Growing up, he was a regular at Ibrox with his uncle Roland before moving down to England at just 10 years of age.

His family had to move back to Glasgow when he was signed by Gers, and he claimed to have spent three years in the youth set-up before injury put an end to his dreams of playing professionally as an 18-year-old.

‘I did very well,’ Ramsay once told the Observer Sport Monthly. ‘I was a naturally aggressive left-back, a cut-throat tackler.

‘You may have got past once but there was never, ever, ever a second occasion. And I was fast, I was a great 100m sprinter. If you were to compare me to anyone, I guess it could be Stuart Pearce.

‘My dad was a Rangers fan and fantastically proud of me. But it was hard and very stressful. Never knowing if you were going to make it. I was petrified most of the time. The games were really violent, not like the football we see nowadays.’

Previously, there had been some speculation that he had played for the Rangers first-team a total of three times while on their books.

However, this was disputed by the club who wanted to make it clear that Ramsay never played for the club in a professional capacity.

Ramsay has been a Rangers fans since he was a boy, regularly going to Ibrox as a child.

In 2024, Rangers launched Menu by Gordon Ramsay in their Blue Sky Lounge overlooking the pitch.

In 2009, the celebrity chef’s camp felt it necessary to release a statement clearing up the situation.

‘Gordon has always down-played his footballing past and been clear about the fact that he never made it to be a professional,’ it read.

‘As detailed in Gordon’s autobiography, Humble Pie, Gordon was a promising schoolboy who was monitored by Rangers over a three-year period during his school holidays when he attended their Youth Policy.

‘During this time he played a couple of non-league matches as a trialist. A knee injury put paid to any further hopes of being signed by Rangers.