But I play like Puyol and Ramos says new signing Nikola

RANGERS new boy Nikola Katic has promised to grab the chance of becoming the latest Ibrox hero from his country by the Croat.

The 21-year-old central defender is following a line of players from his homeland to sign for the Light Blues, with the path set previously by Dado Prso, Nikita Jelavic and Niko Kranjcar.

He sealed a £2million move from Slaven Belupo yesterday, penning a four-year contract as Steven Gerrard held off a late move from Spartak Moscow to lure him to Russia.

A £3.5m move by Rangers for Brighton’s Connor Goldson is also set to be completed in the next 24 hours.

Rangers fans grew to love Prso and Jelavic and although Kranjcar’s two-year spell at the club was blighted by injury he still showed glimpses of the talent that saw him win 81 caps for his country.

Katic said: “Everyone says those guys made a good job with Rangers and now I have BY GARY RALSTON the responsibility of holding that tradition here.

“The players I admire include Carlos Puyol and Sergio Ramos, great captains and real leaders of their teams.

“I can’t wait to play at Rangers. I’ve seen the stadium on TV and I’ve read about the fans and the rivalry with Celtic.

“The type of football in Scotland and England is for me because they play long balls and there are duels and it’s a lot to do with strength, which is what I like.

“This is a big club, playing in a competitive league and also in European football. There are 50,000 fans in the stadium every week. It’s wonderful, a big step for me.

“I want to train hard every day and I want to help Rangers make good results in Europe and win the Scottish Cup and the league.

“Rangers also need to be one of the top European clubs and I’ll try, with the other players, to move them to the top of European football again, the Champions League and everything else.”

Katic is a regular with Croatia’s Under-21s and has already earned one full cap, in a friendly against Mexico last year.

He’s determined to make it on the world stage and showed he’s not short on confidence when he rejected a move to the B team of Hajduk Split.

He told them to sign him for their first-team squad or not at all and when they held off he committed to Slaven Belupo whom he helped to seventh last season.

Katic told Rangers TV: “I’m sure the move to Rangers will help me. The Croatian national team has a lot of good players at big clubs, such as Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

“It’s hard to go from the Croatian national league to play for the national team but Rangers is a good step to show the national manager I can