Falkirk schoolboys included in Rangers' Europa League squad by Steven Gerrard

Butterworth had also been selected for Scotland youth squads while studying at the school. Picture: Michael Gillen.

Steven Gerrard's side will meet FC Porto, Young Boys of Berne and Feyenoord in the competition.

And among the squad alongside the likes of Jermaine Defoe, James Tavernier, Alfredo Morelos and former Bairn Scott Arfield, will be Zac Butterworth and Jay Hogarth.

Both are former pupils in the SFA Performance School programme at Graeme High.

Zac Butterworth (right) with Graeme High's SFA performance school chief Ian Ross and former GHS class-mate Connor McBride. Picture: Michael Gillen.

Neither has made a first team appearance for the Ibrox side but are included in the squad for the European campaign on the 'B-list' - a section for clubs to include youth players trained by the club.

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Inclusions on the B-list are unlimited and are supplementary to the squad of 24, but players must be born on, or after, 1 January 1998 and have been eligible to play for the club for two years in an uninterrupted spell.

Hogarth's older brother Nicky, another ex-Graeme High pupil, is also on Rangers' books and was included in last year's UEFA squad list. He then spent a period on loan at East Stirlingshire.

Hogarth (back row, centre) as Rangers celebrated in May. Picture: Michael Gillen.

Hogarth Jnr was among the Rangers squad who partied on the Falkirk Stadium pitch last year as the Glasgow club landed the SPFL Reserve League trophy.

Their father Myles is, like the brothers, a goalkeeper and is well-known for spells at Falkirk, Hearts, Stirling Albion and Camelon, and played more than 100 times for the Bairns in three years at Brockville.

IN PICTURES: Rangers seal Reserve League at Falkirk

However the best known player with a Falkirk link in Steven Gerrard's squad remains Scott Arfield who left the Bairns in 2010 for Huddersfield in a £400,000 move and sandwiched a move to Burnley between his switch to Ibrox last summer.