Ally McCoist

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ally McCoist

Ally McCoist in 1994
Personal information
Full name	Alistair Murdoch McCoist
Date of birth	24 September 1962 (1962-09-24) (age 46)
Place of birth	Bellshill, Scotland
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Rangers (assistant manager)
Senior career1
Years	Club	Apps (Gls)2
1979–1981	St. Johnstone	057 0(22)
1981–1983	Sunderland	056 00(8)
1983–1998	Rangers	418 (251)
1998–2001	Kilmarnock	059 0(12)
National team
1986–1998	Scotland	061 0(19)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. 2 Appearances (Goals)

Alistair Murdoch "Ally" McCoist, MBE (born 24 September 1962 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire) is a Scottish former professional football player who played as a striker. He is currently assistant manager at Scottish Premier League club Rangers, where he spent fifteen of his twenty-two years as a player.

McCoist began his career with St Johnstone before moving to Sunderland in 1981. He returned to Scotland two years later and signed with Rangers. Whilst in Govan, McCoist became the clubs record goalscorer, netting 355 goals. In addition to this McCoist holds the Rangers records for; number of league goals scored, number of Scottish League Cup goals scored and the most goals scored by a player in European competitions with 251, 54 and 21 respectively. McCoist is also third in the all-time appearance table for Rangers, having made 581 appearances for the club.

Largely thanks to his career at Rangers, McCoist was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. He is also a member of the Scotland Football Hall of Fame, having gained 61 international caps.

[edit] Club career

[edit] St Johnstone

McCoist's first professional club was St. Johnstone, having sided from Fir Park Boys Club in 1978. McCoist had trained with St Mirren as a sixteen year-old but was rejected by the then manager Alex Ferguson for being "too small".^[1] After failing to score during his first two seasons in Perth, McCoist netted 22 goals in 38 appearances during the 1981-82 season. This led to Sunderland making a £400,000 bid for the 19-year-old striker which the club accepted and so McCoist moved south of the border.

[edit] Sunderland

McCoist's time at Sunderland, however, was unsuccessful: he managed only 8 goals in 56 appearances.

[edit] Rangers

In 1983 the then Rangers manager John Greig signed him for £185,000.^[2] During his fifteen years with Rangers, McCoist achieved an array of honours, including ten league championship medals. This began with a title in the 1986-87 season and included the whole "Nine in a Row" period between 1989 and 1997. McCoist also won a Scottish Cup winners' medal and nine Scottish League Cup winners' medals. He was Europe's top goalscorer 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.

[edit] Kilmarnock

McCoist finished his career at Kilmarnock, where he spent three seasons after leaving Ibrox in 1998. He retired from playing at the age of 39, on 20 May 2001, after playing 50 minutes of a league win at home to Celtic.^[3][4]

[edit] International career

McCoist made his Scotland debut aged 23, on 26 April 1986, in a 0-0 friendly match against Netherlands.^[5]

He has captained Scotland once, against Australia on 27 March 1996. McCoist went on to score the winner in a 1-0 win at Hampden Park after 55 minutes.^[6]

[edit] International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	9 September 1987	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Hungary	1-0	2-0	Friendly match
2	9 September 1987	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Hungary	2-0	2-0	Friendly match
3	14 October 1987	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Belgium	1-0	2-0	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
4	26 April 1989	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Cyprus	2-1	2-1	FIFA World Cup 1990 qualifying
5	15 November 1989	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Norway	1-0	1-1	FIFA World Cup 1990 qualifying
6	16 May 1990	Pittodrie, Aberdeen	Egypt	1-2	1-3	Friendly match
7	12 September 1990	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Romania	2-1	2-1	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
8	14 November 1990	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia	Bulgaria	1-0	1-1	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
9	11 September 1991	Wankdorf Stadion, Berne	Switzerland	2-2	2-2	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
10	13 November 1991	Hampden Park, Glasgow	San Marino	4-0	4-0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
11	19 February 1992	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Northern Ireland	1-0	1-0	Friendly match
12	20 May 1992	Varsity Stadium, Toronto	Canada	2-1	3-1	Friendly match
13	9 September 1992	Wankdorf Stadion, Berne	Switzerland	1-1	1-3	FIFA World Cup 1994 qualifying
14	17 February 1993	Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow	Malta	1-0	3-0	FIFA World Cup 1994 qualifying
15	17 February 1993	Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow	Malta	2-0	3-0	FIFA World Cup 1994 qualifying
16	16 August 1995	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Greece	1-0	1-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
17	15 November 1995	Hampden Park, Glasgow	San Marino	3-0	5-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
18	27 March 1996	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Australia	1-0	1-0	Friendly match
19	18 June 1996	Villa Park, Birmingham	Switzerland	1-0	1-0	UEFA Euro 1996

[edit] Coaching career

[edit] Scotland

McCoist joined the Scotland coaching staff under his former manager at Rangers, Walter Smith in 2004. He turned down the managerial position at Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 2006 as he wanted a job nearer his Glasgow home.^[7]

[edit] Rangers

McCoist returned to Rangers as an assistant manager to Walter Smith in January 2007.^[8] After Rangers' victory over Queen of the South in the 2008 Scottish Cup Final, Smith revealed that McCoist had been in charge of the team for the entire cup campaign.^[9]

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Honours

Rangers

• Scottish Premier Division : 8
  

1987, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997

• Scottish Cup : 1
  

1992

• Scottish League Cup: 9
  

1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996

[edit] Career outside of football

McCoist is also known for his television work. He was a team captain on the BBC's A Question of Sport from 1996 to 2007. On his farewell episode he failed to recognise "Mystery Guest" Walter Smith. He was also a regular pundit for ITV's football coverage. McCoist, along with John Motson, are ex-commentators for the FIFA video games series by 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 debut game in Eindhoven in the first EFPA match-up against a Dutch selection of all-time greats.

He starred in the film A Shot at Glory alongside Robert Duvall, playing Jackie McQuillan, a fictional legendary ex-Celtic player. He also co-presented a late night chat show McCoist and MacAulay for BBC Scotland alongside comedian Fred MacAulay.

[edit] Personal life

McCoist's was awarded an MBE in 1994 for his services to Scottish football.^[10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ally McCoist profile at scottishfa.co.uk
• McCoist's Rangers Hall of Fame page

v • d • e Scotland squad – 1990 FIFA World Cup 1 Leighton • 2 McLeish • 3 Aitken • 4 Gough • 5 McStay • 6 Malpas • 7 Johnston • 8 Bett • 9 McCoist • 10 MacLeod • 11 Gillespie • 12 Goram • 13 Durie • 14 McInally • 15 Levein • 16 McCall • 17 McKimmie • 18 Collins • 19 McPherson • 20 McAllister • 21 Fleck • 22 Gunn • Coach: Roxburgh

v • d • e Scotland squad – UEFA Euro 1992 1 Goram • 2 Gough • 3 McStay • 4 Malpas • 5 McCoist • 6 McClair • 7 Durie • 8 McPherson • 9 McKimmie • 10 McCall • 11 McAllister • 12 Smith • 13 Nevin • 14 Gallacher • 15 Boyd • 16 McInally • 17 Whyte • 18 Bowman • 19 McLaren • 20 Ferguson • Coach: Roxburgh

v • d • e Scotland squad – UEFA Euro 1996 1 Leighton • 2 McKimmie • 3 Boyd • 4 Calderwood • 5 Hendry • 6 Whyte • 7 Spencer • 8 McCall • 9 McCoist • 10 McAllister • 11 Collins • 12 Goram • 13 T. McKinlay • 14 Durie • 15 Jess • 16 Burley • 17 B. McKinlay • 18 Gallacher • 19 Jackson • 20 Booth • 21 Gemmill • 22 Walker • Coach: Brown