Former Scotland manager Craig Levein has admitted that he is looking to return to coaching.

Levein has been out of work since being sacked by the Scottish Football Association in November 2012.

He received an offer to manage a club in Southeast Asia earlier this year, but he rejected the approach because he would prefer to work in an English-speaking nation.

He told the Daily Record: "I had an opportunity to manage a club in China, but I turned it down. I felt that in order to give myself a proper chance I had to go somewhere where English was widely spoken.

"There was an approach to see if I would be interested in managing another country and the language barrier wouldn't have been a difficulty, but I'm still weighing up my options.

"Time isn't weighing heavily on my hands, but it does feel like a year since I was last gainfully employed."

Levein has made the most of his unemployment by indulging in his other sporting passion, horse racing.

However, the 49-year-old says that he is now ready to return to football, with a job South of the border his preference.

He added: "I've got into the training of racehorses at a stable in Kinross and I've learned a lot from watching someone like former National Hunt champion jockey Peter Scudamore when I'm there.

"But my future's in football and I'm ruling nothing out where that is concerned. There are more opportunities to work in England and I'd like to go back there one day.

"I know instinctively that there is somebody out there for me, an owner who's looking for someone to protect the future of his club where the production of young players is concerned."

Levein began his managerial career at Cowdenbeath in 1997. He later went on to manage Hearts, Leicester City and Dundee United, before delving into the international scene in 2009.