Gers snap up French duo

Adams has been looking for players who will progress quickly

Rangers have signed leading French youngsters Hamed Namouchi and Mark Kalenga.

19-year-old Namouchi, who plays in midfield, is considered to be one of the hottest propects in French football and was tipped to break into the Cannes first team in the near future.

Namouchi, who is French Tunisian, has signed a two-year deal with the Ibrox club despite interest from big-spending Chelsea.

The former Cannes youngster is joined at the club by fellow midfielder Mark Kalenga, who has been signed from Auxerre on a one-year contract.

Rangers' director of youth football, George Adams, was particularly excited about the arrival of Namouchi, who has already trained with the first team.

"He played with Cannes and came over here highly recommended and spent a week to 10 days with us on trial," he told Rangers' official website.

Everybody knows Rangers. They are a big name in Europe and I heard a lot about them before coming to Glasgow Hamed Namouchi

"He played one under-21 match and two practice matches and that was enough to convince the coaching staff that he was good enough.

"He will start with the under-21s but we are looking to him to progress to the top team in the near future.

"We were tipped off by contacts about his standard.

"He had been training with Chelsea and then we managed to get him up here and he liked what he saw at Murray Park."

Adams described Kalenga as more of a strong tackling, physical player, who will play in the under-19 side for the time being.