I fired Rangers to the Premiership title just months after turning down Celtic – and here's why I did it
The Jamaica international was snapped up by Steven Gerrard from Anderlecht in a £4.5million deal in the summer of 2020 after a frustrating year in Belgium where he appeared just 13 times, scoring six goals.
Roofe went onto play a starring role in Gers' Premiership triumph in the following season, finishing as their top scorer in the league with 14 goals as Gerrard's side ended Celtic's pursuit of a 10th successive title by going the whole 38-game long campaign unbeaten.
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But Roofe, 32, - who is now without a club after leaving Rangers for Derby County last summer - has lifted the lid on the sequence of events that saw him knock back the chance to talk to Celtic before ultimately making the move across to the other side of Glasgow.
Speaking to Open Goal, he said: "It was Celtic first. Celtic asked my agent about it but I said no because my focus was just on playing for Anderlecht.
"I went there for a reason to play. COVID cut it short so I didn't feel like I had done enough there. It was like 'what's the point in going out to Belgium, moving my whole family and then after a few months move back'. It didn't make sense.
"Also, a week before that I had spoken with (Anderlecht boss) Vincent Kompany and he was like 'yeah we still want you here and we are building this and that..'
"In my head, I was going to play the full season again at Anderlecht. And then literally a week later I got a phone call from Vincent Kompany saying 'Rangers have put in a bid and the club have accepted it'.
"Celtic didn't put a bid in, they just spoke to my agent and said 'there is interest there would you fancy it?'.
"The difference was Rangers put in a bid and as soon as that bid went in, the club (Anderlecht) was in a financial situation because of COVID, so they said yes straight away.
"It was then up to me to either say 'I'll go to Rangers or stay at Anderlecht'.
Roofe also says Gerrard's standing in the game helped him make the decision to head to Ibrox.
He added: "Yes, I was happy to go to Rangers because of Steven Gerrard. For me a lot of it is respect, I have grown up watching these sort of players and what they have done in the game.
"So as soon as they want me, I'm like 'yeah let's do this'. (The first thing) he said to me was 'come in, be our number nine and we'll win the league.' "
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