{"id":446108,"date":"2026-02-26T05:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446108\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:42:09","slug":"hearts-looking-at-leon-king-as-rangers-contract-nears-end-after-ayr-united-career-resurgence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446108\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearts &#8216;looking at&#8217; Leon King as Rangers contract nears end after Ayr United career resurgence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 22-year-old defender has impressed while on loan at Somerset Park this term<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_Dunfermline-Athletic-v-Ayr-United-William-Hill-Championship.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Former Celtic player Si Ferry has claimed Hearts are &#8220;looking at&#8221; <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/leon-king\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Leon King<\/a> with his Rangers contract nearing an end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The Ibrox academy graduate burst onto the scene with the Light Blues in 2021 as he became a part of the first-team plans in Glasgow. At the time,<a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/sport\/football\/leon-king-sparks-rangers-transfer-28211283\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\"> Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester United were reportedly<\/a> showing interest in the Scotland youth international.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">However, he has struggled to make a claim for a regular <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/rangers-fc\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Rangers<\/a>&#8216; first-team spot in the following years. After a loan spell at Queen&#8217;s Park last term, the 22-year-old was sent to Ayr United in the summer as he entered the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">King has impressed in the Scottish Championship promotion fight under Scott Brown, and teammate Jamie Murphy talked up the impact the player has had at Somerset Park. He told Open Goal: &#8220;He&#8217;s doing really well, Leon has been a standout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;He is doing really well playing right of a back three. I&#8217;d say that is probably his best position, [like] when he came in at Rangers as a young boy when we were there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;He played a bit of centre midfielder, and centre-half, right-back and that. I think that really suits him the right of a three because he is good on the ball and calm, and good in the air. He is doing really well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Ferry floated: &#8220;I heard the other day that <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/hearts-fc\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Hearts<\/a> are looking at Leon King.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Murphy added: &#8220;It wouldn&#8217;t surprise me. I know he is out of contract and there are teams looking at him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I feel like I am selling him when we want to keep him at Ayr, but he has done really well this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Follow Record Sport on <a aria-label=\"TwitterLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Record_Sport\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>, <a aria-label=\"FacebookLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DailyRecordSport\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a aria-label=\"InstagramLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dailyrecord_sport\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> for all of the up-to-the minute breaking news, video and audio on the SPFL, the Scotland national team and beyond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Tune in to <a aria-label=\"Hotline LiveLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/watch-record-sport-hotline-live-33585614\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Hotline Live<\/a> every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport&#8217;s newest podcast, <a aria-label=\"Game OnLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/GameOnListen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Game On<\/a>, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google\u2019s preferred sources. Click <a aria-label=\"HERELink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/news\/scottish-news\/more-daily-record-exclusives-signing-36421026\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 22-year-old defender has impressed while on loan at Somerset Park this term (Image: SNS Group) Former Celtic&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[47077,218,9531,161931,2714,16293,8058,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-446108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-ayr-united-fc","tag-football","tag-hearts-fc","tag-leon-king","tag-rangers-fc","tag-scottish-championship","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}