Soccer : Gers release Prodan

Rangers have handed £2.2m defender Daniel Prodan a free transfer.

The move ends a two-and-a-half-year Ibrox career that saw the Romanian fail to kick a ball for the first team.

The 28-year-old, now a regular for his country once again, has completed a permanent switch to hometown club Rocar Bucharest, where he had been on loan.

Rangers signed Prodan from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 1998 but a knee injury meant he was never regarded as fit enough to make his debut.

Rangers claimed the Spanish club had been aware of the extent of the injury at the time of the sale and subsequently withheld part of the fee.

He spent months on the sidelines before returning to his homeland, where his form was good enough to put him straight back in Romania's World Cup qualifying plans.

It has been suggested that giving Prodan a game for Rangers could have prompted Atletico to demand the remainder of the fee.

Chairman David Murray told The Daily Record: "Everybody is satisfied with the deal, including Rangers.

"Obviously there is a feeling we have missed out on something because we never had the chance to see him playing for Rangers.

"But at the end of the day we had to do what is best for the player and Rangers.

"It was the manager's decision. If he had wanted to bring Prodan back then I would have brought him back."