Christian Nerlinger snubs Rangers approach as German lifts lid on contact from Ibrox over sporting director role

Former Rangers midfielder Christian Nerlinger has revealed that he has turned down the opportunity to return to Ibrox as the club’s sporting director.

The 50-year-old German was at Rangers between 2001 and 2004 and since hanging up his boots, the six-times capped German internationalist has worked as a sporting director, most notably with Bayern Munich for three years until 2012. The Glasgow outfit are searching for a new sporting director after Ross Wilson left on Wednesday but Nerlinger has confirmed that he will remain with his football consultancy network after being sounded out for the job.

"It is a great honour for me to be contacted by this incredibly large and traditional club,” Nerlinger told Transfermarkt. “Rangers are and always will be special to me. With my agency, I have built up a very close, loyal and trusting relationship with my players over the past few years and I feel a great responsibility towards them. The agency is the way I always wanted it to be, and I really enjoy working with the guys every day.”