Rangers boss Philippe Clement is favourite to be the new Belgium boss in his homeland....after his former chief executive and mentor Vincent Mannaert was appointed Belgian FA sports director.

Belgium manager Domenico Tedesco is under serious pressure after a dismal 1-0 loss to Israel, a dreadful Euro 2024 and just one win out of six in the Nations League.

He is expected to be axed and Ibrox boss Clement has been strongly tipped to take over with Mannaert just appointed as sports director.

Mannaert was Club Brugge chief executive for 13 years where they won six titles and appointed Clement as the club's manager in 2019.

And in April this year, he revealed how much he respects Clement.

He said: "Philippe and I have known each other for a very long time and since we were both playing, he was at the beginning of a fantastic career and me at the beginning of a less bright career!

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"We had great results in the Champions League at Club Brugge and had a draw with PSG - with Messi, with Neymar, with Mbappe - and we had a draw in the Bernabeu against Real Madrid. And we had great celebrations when we won the title.

"He is a very hard-working person, he believes in hard work and preparation. As a player, he was also a leader, he was a captain for many years at Brugge. You see that leadership coming back as a coach, he leads a group.

"He prepares himself very well. He is analytically very strong, he is able to get out the angle of the opponent and he combines that with emotional leadership."

Clement has been named in the Belgian media as leading a five-man shortlist which includes Thierry Henry, Hein Vanhaezebrouck, Sergio Conceicao and Hervé Renard."