Ricksen sticks around at St Petersburg

Fernando Ricksen has secured his exit from Rangers to sign a permanent deal with Zenit St Petersburg.

The Russian club have confirmed that the Dutchman has signed a contract until 2009.

Ricksen was loaned to Zenit after he was sent home following an incident on a club flight to South Africa for a pre-season tour.

Now former Rangers boss Dick Advocaat has wrapped up a deal to take the 30-year-old for the remainder of his Gers contract.

Ricksen last month revealed he was desperate to leave Glasgow for good.

He said: “I’m so happy to be away from there. Here, it is great to be playing and that is something I missed in Glasgow.

“Maybe I stayed there too long, I was satisfied and had won all the prizes.”

Advocaat signed the midfielder or full-back for the light Blues for £3.6million from AZ Alkmaar in 2000.

Ricksen endured a tough start to his Ibrox career when he was substituted early on in a 6-2 defeat by Celtic.

But he went on to be a success and won the SPFA Player of the Year award as Rangers won the Bank of Scotland Premier League in 2005.

However, discipline problems followed Ricksen around and his Holland career ended after eight caps when he kicked a door at the team hotel in Belarus.

He was twice punished by video evidence after altercations with Darren Young, then of Aberdeen, and Celtic forward Derek Riordan, then of Hibernian.

He was also fined £7,000 after being convicted of assault and breach of the peace in October 2003 following a fireworks party at his house in Newton Mearns.

And he was referred to former Arsenal skipper Tony Adams’ Sporting Chance addiction clinic after the on-board incident in July this year.

Ricksen made an immediate return to Ibrox with Zenit for a 4-1 friendly win.

But the former AZ Alkmaar player was jeered after Gers winger Chris Burke was hurt in a challenge with the defender.