Rangers have confirmed the appointment of Ceri Bowley as first-team coach after recruiting manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s former City Football Group colleague.

Bowley was head of coaching support at the group which owns Manchester City, New York City, Yokohama F Marinos and nine other clubs across the world.

Van Bronckhorst had a spell based at the Etihad after leaving Feyenoord in the summer of 2019.

A Rangers statement read: “Holding a PhD in sport psychology and coaching science, Bowley arrives with a wealth of varied experience to further complement Gio van Bronckhorst’s backroom team.

“He also led the creation of, and implemented, the ‘City Football Methodology’ which is now in place across all of their clubs and is applied in coaching, sport science, performance analysis and talent identification and recruitment, with a focus on individual player and team development.

“This methodology has supported the success of these clubs in their various leagues across the globe.”

Bowley was previously academy director at Barry Town United and held coaching roles with the Football Association, Swansea and Merthyr Town.

Van Bronckhorst said: “I worked with him a couple of years ago and built up a good relationship with him.

“He will join my staff and help all of us to improve our players, and the players will work closely with him to make sure their development goes faster.

“We have identified areas that we want to see improvement in, so I am really happy that he has joined us.”

Van Bronckhorst already has one first-team coach in former Netherlands team-mate Roy Makaay as well as assistant manager Dave Vos.

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