The Portuguese was impressed by the calibre of candidates he met but settled on the Finnish assistant coach for his knowledge of the club, his contacts outside of Scotland and experience in development coaching roles at Morton and Motherwell.
“First of all, we wanted someone with a Rangers past,” explained Caixinha to the official Rangers website. “The second point was of course to know the Scottish reality of football and the third, which was also important and which makes all the difference, is to align with our dynamic, our processes and our methodologies.
“Jonatan was selected, with no disregard to the others. We chose Jonatan and we believe in him. He will be a good assistant to add to our team because his a quality guy, he is a hard worker and he is clever.
“It’s important to have to types of blood to find the balance within one technical staff, it’s very important.
“We have the Latin guys who are have strong blood and are passionate, maybe we just needed to add someone from further north who can add a little bit of ice to calm down things from time to time.
“I think it is going to be a very interesting mixture within our technical staff.”
Johansson is also a veteran of the Premier League, spending six years at Charlton during their days as an established top-flight club.
He won 107 caps for Finland, scoring 22 goals, and has given up the job of joint assistant manager with the national team to join Rangers on a full-time basis.
Since his playing days ended in 2011 he and wife Jean have based themselves in Scotland.