Sacked Real Madrid boss Bernd Schuster has applied for the vacant manager's job at Sunderland.

The Sunday Times says the German, sacked as Real Madrid head coach last Monday, has let Sunderland know he is interested.

Schuster, 49, won a Spanish league title with Real in May after taking over from Fabio Capello in 2007. He had already led Getafe, the club from the Madrid suburbs, to a cup final. Before that, he had been in charge of Levante in Spain and Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, as well as Fortuna Cologne and FC Cologne in Germany.

At Real he became increasingly exasperated by the club's clumsiness in the transfer market and its prospects of retaining the league title. He was linked with the England manager's job last year but the FA denied any contact.