Ally McCoist

Alistair "Ally" Murdoch McCoist MBE (born September 24, 1962 in Bellshill) is a Scottish former professional football player who played as a striker. He is currently assistant manager at Scottish Premier League club Rangers.

Early career

McCoist's first professional club was St. Johnstone. After just two years in Perth, several clubs became interested in McCoist. It was Sunderland who beat off the efforts of Rangers to sign the rising star. His time at Sunderland, however, was unsuccessful: he managed only 8 goals in 56 appearances. It was in 1983 that Rangers manager John Greig signed him.

During his fifteen years with Rangers, McCoist achieved an impressive array of honours, including ten league championship medals, a Scottish Cup medal, and nine League Cup medals. He was Europe's top goal scorer twice (in 1992 and 1993), as well as being named Scotland's "Player of the Year" in 1992. McCoist is Rangers' all-time leading goalscorer (with 251 league goals; 355 in all competitions) and Scotland's fifth-highest scorer, with 19 goals . He is also a member of the Scotland Football Hall of Fame, having gained 61 international caps.

McCoist finished his career at Kilmarnock, where he spent three seasons. In 2004 he joined the Scotland national team coaching staff under his former manager at Rangers, Walter Smith.

McCoist is also known for his television work. He has been part of the A Question of Sport team since 1996 and is a pundit for ITV's football coverage. McCoist, along with John Motson, are ex-long-term commentators for the FIFA video games series from EA Sports. They were replaced by Clive Tyldesley and Andy Gray for FIFA 2006.

In May 2006, he was part of the historic first European Selection, led by Terry Venables, which saw its début game in Eindhoven in the first EFPA match-up against a Dutch selection of all-time greats.

Career stats

(Note: Table contains league appearances and goals only)

Season	Club	Apps	Goals
1978-1979	St. Johnstone	4	0
1979-1980	St. Johnstone	15	0
1980-1981	St. Johnstone	38	22
1981-1982	Sunderland	28	2
1982-1983	Sunderland	28	6
1983-1984	Rangers	30	9
1984-1985	Rangers	25	12
1985-1986	Rangers	33	24
1986-1987	Rangers	44	33
1987-1988	Rangers	40	31
1988-1989	Rangers	19	9
1989-1990	Rangers	34	14
1990-1991	Rangers	26	11
1991-1992	Rangers	38	34
1992-1993	Rangers	34	34
1993-1994	Rangers	21	7
1994-1995	Rangers	9	1
1995-1996	Rangers	25	16
1996-1997	Rangers	25	10
1997-1998	Rangers	15	5
1998-1999	Kilmarnock	29	8
1999-2000	Kilmarnock	12	3
2000-2001	Kilmarnock	18	1
	Total	590	293

Managerial career

McCoist has aspirations to be a manager. In 2006, he turned down the managerial position at Inverness Caledonian Thistle as he wanted a job nearer his Glasgow home.

On January 5 2007, the BBC reported that McCoist would become an assistant manager under Walter Smith at Rangers after Paul Le Guen left the club by mutual consent.

On January 10, 2007, McCoist was confirmed as assistant to Smith at Rangers with Kenny McDowall appointed as first-team coach.

Trivia

• McCoist scored his country's only goal in their Euro 96 campaign with a 25-yard strike in their 1-0 victory over Switzerland.
• He starred in the film A Shot at Glory alongside his favourite actor Robert Duvall.
• He has released his own footballing quiz book named Ally McCoist's Question of Soccer.
• His nickname at Rangers was "Super Ally".
• He was involved in a high profile divorce after his affair with actress Patsy Kensit in 2001 and air hostess Donna Giblin a BA air hostess
• in 2004 it was revealed his new love was another air hostess Jo-Anne Shaw
• He has three sons, Alexander and twins Argyll and Mitchell, with his first wife Allison, whom he met whilst playing for Sunderland. He also has another son, Arran, with Vivien Ross.
• He has a pet labrador named Sheila, who often takes part in the famous dog contest Crufts.

External links

• McCoist's Rangers Hall of Fame page
• Ally McCoist at itv.com