The German has been set the task of emulating Capello's success but at the same time ensuring that the team plays the sort of entertaining, attacking football demanded by the club and its fans.

The former Real, Atletico and Barcelona midfielder was reported to have bought himself out of his contract with Getafe by paying a compensation fee of $650,000 which allowed him to make the switch to the nine-time European champions.

Schuster directed Getafe, the modest Madrid-based side, to consecutive ninth-placed finishes in the Primera Liga and to a first ever final of the King's Cup, where they lost 1-0 to Sevilla.

Getafe caused the upset of the season when they came back from a 5-2 first-leg defeat against Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Cup only to inflict a humiliating 4-0 defeat on the Catalans in the return.

Prior to the Getafe job, Schuster had a brief spell in charge of Levante who got off to a flying start, but faded badly in the second half of the season before the German was fired four games from the end of the campaign that ended with relegation.

Fired again

Schuster's only other top-flight experience came with Ukraine side Shakhtar Donetsk between 2003-04.

Once again his team got off to a good start but they hit problems towards the end of the season and he was fired when they fell behind arch-rivals Dynamo Kiev.

A confident and out-spoken figure, Schuster had a series of high-profile arguments with several of his clubs as a player, sitting out a season while at Barcelona because of a legal
dispute and being barred from playing while at Bayer Leverkusen.

He has made no secret of his desire to take charge at Real and has been linked with the job since midway through last season.