Who is Nils Koppen? Rangers new director of football recruitment who unearths hidden gems and knows Clement well

It's all coming together behind the scenes at Rangers now after the long-anticipated announcement of their new director of football recruitment.

And it's another Belgian backroom appointment as Nils Koppen joins the Belgian revolution on the Ibrox football board. The 38-year-old arrives as a well-known entity to Philippe Clement and their previous working relationship hints the manager might have had a big say in the appointment. And Koppen, who is appointed alongside new head of performance Tom Taylor, is hoping to help lead the club into a brave new era.

He might not be the box office appointment some fans were hoping for but he arrives with a proven track record of talent-spotting and made his name coming through the ranks at PSV...a team known for their ability to spot and develop a gem or two. But who actually is the new man handed the recruitment reins, and what will his role be at Ibrox? Record Sport takes a look.

The man chosen to replace Ross Wilson comes with an extensive CV of coaching and scouting under his belt. Having been head of scouting at PSV for the last three years, he initially joined the club as a youth scout in 2018 and worked his way up to senior prominence.

Prior to that he'd worked at Genk, where he was in charge if scouting for the youth teams from 2016-2018 - a spell that saw him strike up a working relationship with Clement (more to come on that later). He's also held various roles at Lommel SK, where he started as a youth coach in 2008 and left as their academy manager in 2014...a role which kickstarted his transition out of coaching and into more overarching recruitment work.

He might not have been one of the foreground antagonists but Koppen had a big part to play in the PSV side that