Steven Gerrard plays the doting grandad after telling Rangers 'the timing isn't right' for return to football - with his family still based in Bahrain after stint in Saudi

Former England and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has been on grandad duty as he continues to mull over his next move in football.

Gerrard's daughter, Lilly-Ella, welcomed her first child - a baby girl - in July. The influencer, 21, took to Instagram to share a black and white image of her boyfriend Lee Byrne, leaving the hospital whilst carrying their newborn in a car seat. She simply captioned the photo, '@leebyrne8 2 becomes 3'.

The eldest child of the former England footballer announced she was expecting her first child in January. Lilly has been in a relationship with Lee Byrne - the son of a jailed Irish gangster - since October 2022, and their romance made headlines when it first came to light.

It meant father Steven became a grandfather for the first time at just 45 years-old. The former midfielder has four children with wife Alex - daughters Lilly, Lexie, 19, Lourdes, 14, and a son named Lio, eight.

On Wednesday night, Gerrard posed alongside his granddaughter on social media, sharing the snap to his 11.6million Instagram followers. There was no caption.

It comes just weeks after the former midfielder rejected the chance to return to management with Scottish side Rangers to his family still being based in Bahrain. 

Gerrard, who won the Premiership title for the Glasgow giants in 2021 before leaving for Aston Villa, held talks in London over replacing Russell Martin at the start of the month.

However, with Daily Mail Sport having reported that he was eager to be given control over transfers should he go back to Rangers, it has emerged that Gerrard told chairman Andrew Cavenagh and vice-chair Paraag Marathe that he wished to step away from the race.

Gerrard's family remain based in Bahrain following his ill-fated stint with Saudi outfit Al-Ettifaq and it is understood that was a factor when he spoke with Ibrox chiefs in the summer about the possibility of returning for a second stint as boss.

The two parties are understood to have ended talks amicably with the door remaining open to forging an alliance again somewhere in the future. Lilly, meanwhile, announced her pregnancy news in January, sharing a photo of her positive pregnancy test and telling her 222,000 Instagram followers: 'Our little secret. The best news... mini us is on the way.'

Responding to his daughter's post, Gerrard wrote: 'We can't wait. Congratulations and we love you.'

Lilly's partner - with whom she was first linked in 2022 - is the son of Kinahan Cartel gangster Liam Byrne, who was issued a five and a half year prison sentence for a plot to stockpile a stash of machine guns.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how Byrne and colleague Shaun Kent planted a haul of automatic weapons in a bid to help Kavanagh dupe the authorities.

Kavanagh, Byrne's brother-in-law, was hoping to lead the National Crime Agency, Britain's FBI, to the guns in a bid to reduce his sentence in a drug conspiracy case.

The staggering haul, imported from Holland, included the Skorpion, the type of automatic weapon used to murder Ashley Dale and Ellie Edwards on Merseyside.

There is no suggestion that Lee or any member of the Gerrard family are involved in crime.