Croatia coach Bilic turns down Schalke

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic has turned down the chance to coach Bundesliga side Schalke 04, the ex-West Ham defender revealed on Monday.

Bilic, 40, was approached by Schalke bosses at the weekend to take over as interim coach until the end of the season after Fred Rutten was sacked last Thursday, but Bilic has said he wants to remain in charge of his national side.

“The people from Schalke were in Zagreb on Sunday and we spoke,” Bilic told German tabloid Bild ahead of Croatia’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra.

“It is a huge honour for me to be considered a candidate with such a big club.

“I thanked them and repeated that I just want to focus on the Croatia national team at the moment.”

Having played for Karlsruhe in the Bundesliga, as well as Everton and West Ham in England, Bilic is under contract with Croatia until 2010 and was linked to the vacant Hamburg job last year before Dutchman Martin Jol took charge.