{"id":288312,"date":"2025-11-28T18:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T18:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/288312\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T18:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T18:18:13","slug":"controversial-ex-leeds-chief-in-rangers-next-sporting-director-link-as-49ers-connection-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/288312\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial ex Leeds chief in Rangers next sporting director link as 49ers connection emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Spaniard is known to Ibrox vice chairman Paraag Marathe from their time together at Elland Road<\/p>\n

13:19, 28 Nov 2025Updated 13:21, 28 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

\"LeedsLeeds United director of football Victor Orta rages at the final whistle<\/p>\n

Victor Orta has emerged as favourite to replace Kevin Thelwell<\/a> as Rangers sporting director.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard has director of football at Leeds United during the 49ers Enterprises, part of the American consortium now in control at Ibrox, initial involvement at Elland Road.<\/p>\n

Orta moved to La Liga side Sevilla and then Real Valladolid but is now favourite for the Rangers<\/a> role with Esports Bets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old was a controversial character during his time in Yorkshire – and once made a beeline for the Brentford board after watching his side snatch a late equaliser<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was also handed a one-match stadium ban by The FA after accepting a charge of improper conduct following an incident in the tunnel during a game against Millwall.<\/p>\n

Rangers vice chairman Paraag Marathe will know of Orta from their time together at Leeds United.<\/p>\n

Paraag Marathe, Victor Orta, Angus Kinnear and Paul Bell watch on at Elland Road<\/p>\n

Ex-Liverpool and Wolfsburg operator Jorg Schmadtke is next at 7\/2, while former Rangers and Everton defender and current football executive David Weir is 9\/2 <\/a>to return in a senior role despite recently taking up a post at French side Strasbourg after leaving Brighton. Leicester\u2019s long-serving director of football Jon Rudkin is a 5\/1 chance, with ex-Monaco and Spurs director Paul Mitchell priced 7\/1.<\/p>\n

Darragh Harbison, spokesperson for Esports Bets<\/a>, said: \u201cRangers will be looking to move quickly after making some seismic changes off the pitch, parting ways with their chief executive and sporting director this week.<\/p>\n

“The early betting points to Victor Orta as the likeliest candidate at 3\/1 to take the sporting director role, closely followed by J\u00f6rg Schmadtke at 7\/2 and former Rangers defender David Weir at 9\/2. Jon Rudkin and Paul Mitchell are next in the market, priced 5\/1 and 7\/1 respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next Rangers Sporting Director<\/p>\n

Victor Orta<\/p>\n

3\/1<\/p>\n

J\u00f6rg Schmadtke<\/p>\n

7\/2<\/p>\n

David Weir<\/p>\n

9\/2<\/p>\n

Jon Rudkin<\/p>\n

5\/1<\/p>\n

Paul Mitchell<\/p>\n

7\/2<\/p>\n

Tim Steidten<\/p>\n

8\/1<\/p>\n

Jurgen Klopp<\/p>\n

10\/1<\/p>\n

Dan Ashworth<\/p>\n

12\/1<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Braga ace Victor Gomez insisted his side deserved to beat Rangers in the Europa League….even when they were reduced to ten men.<\/p>\n

Rangers earned their first point in the competition<\/a> to end a seven-game losing streak in Europe when a first half penalty from James Tavernier was cancelled out by an equaliser from Gabri Martinez.<\/p>\n

And defender Gomez reckons they were the better side even though they had to play for half an hour with ten men.<\/p>\n

He said: “Actually, after the sending off, we were excellent and played our best football. We deserved the win even though we had ten men for a lot of the game.<\/p>\n

“We created more opportunities than Rangers and should have got the three points. But I think in the circumstances, a point isn’t a bad result and we are in a great position to qualify now.”<\/p>\n

And goalscorer Martinez was satisfied with taking a point back to Portugal. He said: “We knew it would be difficult here. A draw is a good result when you consider what we were up against.<\/p>\n

“I scored from a mistake that they made and our manager told us if we pressed Rangers, we would get opportunities. We worked so hard with a man less.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spaniard is known to Ibrox vice chairman Paraag Marathe from their time together at Elland Road 13:19,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[117021,2600,218,2714,32527,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-288312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-david-weir","tag-europa-league","tag-football","tag-rangers-fc","tag-spanish-la-liga","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}