McCoist in 1994 |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alistair Murdoch McCoist | ||
| Date of birth | 24 September 1962 | ||
| Place of birth | Bellshill, Scotland | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Rangers (manager) | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1979–1981 | St. Johnstone | 57 | (22) |
| 1981–1983 | Sunderland | 56 | (8) |
| 1983–1998 | Rangers | 418 | (250) |
| 1998–2001 | Kilmarnock | 59 | (12) |
| Total | 590 | (292) | |
| National team | |||
| 1980-1981 | Scotland U18 | 10 | (7) |
| 1983 | Scotland U21 | 1 | (0) |
| 1986–1998 | Scotland | 61 | (19) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 2011– | Rangers | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Alistair Murdoch "Ally" McCoist, MBE (/məˈkɔɪst/); 24 September 1962) is a Scottish football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Rangers in Scotland.
McCoist began his career with St Johnstone before moving to Sunderland in 1981. He returned to Scotland two years later and signed with Rangers. At Rangers, McCoist became the club's 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.
He is second in the Scottish top tier league's all time leading goalscorer having netted 291 times for St. Johnstone, Rangers and Kilmarnock between 1979 and 2001.
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.
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McCoist's first professional club was St. Johnstone, having signed from Fir Park Boys Club in 1978. McCoist had trained with St. Mirren as a 16-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 scored 26 goals in 43 appearances during the 1980-81 season.[2] He also appeared 10 times for the Scotland national under-18 football team, netting competitive strikes against France and Spain in 1–1 draws and the only goal of the game to send reigning U-18 champions England out of the competition at the first hurdle.
McCoist's time at Sunderland, however, was unsuccessful: he managed 8 goals in 56 appearances, including a hat-trick of penalties against West Bromwich Albion in November 1981.
He returned to Scotland and joined Rangers in 1983 for £185,000.
In 1983 the then Rangers manager John Greig signed him for £185,000.[3] 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 the first player to be Europe's top goalscorer twice in a row (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.
McCoist made his competitive debut for the Ibrox side on the opening day of the 1983-84 season against St. Mirren and went on to score twenty goals that year. The highlight was a hat-trick in the 1983 Scottish League Cup Final victory over Celtic. With Rangers still a team very much in the doldrums, McCoist managed 18 goals the following season as he began to endear himself to the club's fans.
His chirpy nature made him difficult to dislike and he soon earned the nickname "Super Ally" with 24 goals in season 1985-86. He made his international debut against Holland in 1986, the same year Graeme Souness arrived at Rangers to begin the Ibrox revolution. McCoist was an ever-present in Rangers' title-winning side of 1987, notching 33 goals along the way and another hat-trick in the League Cup final against Celtic brought further accolades his way.
His tally of 31 goals that season could not prevent Celtic regaining the league title and, although Rangers recaptured their crown in 1988-89, McCoist played only 19 games. That title win was the first of nine-in-a-row, but McCoist found himself in and out of the first team for the first three of those successes.
But when Walter Smith took over from Souness, McCoist returned to the fore and won both Players' Player of the Year and the Sportswriters' award after scoring 34 goals in season 1991-92 as Rangers completed a domestic treble. Those goals won him the European Golden Boot - the first time a Scot had won the award - and he repeated that feat a year later. That despite breaking his leg against Portugal in April and missing the last seven matches of the season.
His appearances were limited over the following two seasons as a result of niggling injuries though, in typical fashion, he came off the bench to score an overhead kick to win the 1993 League Cup final against Hibs. He played more regularly in the 1995-96 season, scoring 16 goals before netting a spectacular long-range drive at Euro '96 against Switzerland. His last appearance in a Rangers jersey came in the 1998 Scottish Cup final when he scored in a 2-1 defeat by Hearts.
McCoist finished his career at Kilmarnock, where he spent three seasons after leaving Ibrox in 1998. He retired from playing on 20 May 2001 at the age of 38, after playing 50 minutes of a league win at home to Celtic.[4]
McCoist made his Scotland debut aged 23, on 29 April 1986, in a 0-0 friendly match against Netherlands.[5]
McCoist started just one game at the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy after being an integral part of the qualification bid.
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]
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]
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]
On 22 February 2011 it was announced he will be the new Rangers manager beginning in June 2011.[10] His first game in charge ended with a 1-1 draw against Hearts. After the game McCoist complained to the BBC about a report that he argued misrepresented his view on violence after Old Firm derbies and the cost of policing the matches.[11] The BBC stood by the report but upheld the complaint about the way the piece had been edited.[12] In February McCoist had called for Rangers supporters who sung offensive chants to be arrested.[13]
McCoist first competitive game in charge of Rangers came on the 23 July 2011, a 1-1 draw at home to Hearts on the opening day of the 2011–12 Scottish Premier League. McCoist then took charge of his first European game as Rangers manager on 26 July at home to Swedish side Malmö FF in the first leg of a UEFA Champions League third round qualifier, losing 1-0 to suffer his first defeat as Rangers manager. His first win as Rangers manager came on the 30 July, away to St.Johnstone with a 2-0 scoreline, goals coming from Nikica Jelavić and Steven Naismith. McCoist's first Champions League campaign as Rangers manager ended at the earliest possible hurdle after drawing 1-1 away to Malmo in the Third qualifying round second leg, losing 2-1 on aggregate and having Madjid Bougherra and Steven Whittaker sent off. Meanwhile, on SPL duty, after McCoist's first 5 league matches managing Rangers, the club were top of the SPL having conceded only 1 goal and currently 1 point ahead of second placed Motherwell. McCoist won his first Old Firm derby match with a 4-2 win over Celtic at Ibrox but were shocked by First Division Falkirk in the League Cup with 3-2 loss a few days later.
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | |||
| Rangers | 1 June 2011 | Present | 27 | 16 | 5 | 6 | 59.26 |
| Club performance | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Scotland | League | Scottish Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 1978–79 | St. Johnstone | First Division | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | ||||||
| 1979–80 | 15 | 0 | 15 | 0 | ||||||||
| 1980–81 | 38 | 22 | 38 | 22 | ||||||||
| England | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 1981–82 | Sunderland | First Division | 28 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 32 | 2 | ||
| 1982–83 | 28 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 33 | 7 | ||||
| Scotland | League | Scottish Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 1983–84 | Rangers | Premier Division | 30 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 47 | 20 |
| 1984–85 | 25 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 38 | 18 | ||
| 1985–86 | 33 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 40 | 26 | ||
| 1986–87 | 44 | 34 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 56 | 38 | ||
| 1987–88 | 40 | 31 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 53 | 42 | ||
| 1988–89 | 19 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 33 | 18 | ||
| 1989–90 | 34 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | - | 40 | 18 | |||
| 1990–91 | 26 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 36 | 18 | ||
| 1991–92 | 38 | 34 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 49 | 39 | ||
| 1992–93 | 34 | 34 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 52 | 49 | ||
| 1993–94 | 21 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | 28 | 11 | |||
| 1994–95 | 9 | 1 | - | - | - | 9 | 1 | |||||
| 1995–96 | 25 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 37 | 20 | ||
| 1996–97 | 25 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 37 | 20 | ||
| 1997–98 | 15 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 26 | 16 | ||
| 1998–99 | Kilmarnock | Premier League | 29 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | - | 32 | 9 | |
| 1999–00 | 12 | 3 | - | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 5 | |||
| 2000–01 | 18 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 22 | 3 | ||||
| Total | Scotland | 534 | 284 | 50 | 29 | 67 | 59 | 56 | 21 | 707 | 393 | |
| England | 56 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 65 | 9 | ||||
| Career total | 590 | 292 | 54 | 29 | 72 | 60 | 56 | 21 | 772 | 402 | ||
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 whom he left the show to work under at Rangers. 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 but returned with Motson for FIFA Manager 08.
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.
In 2010, he stood alongside famed football commentator Englishman Martin Tyler as co-commentator for matches such as Germany vs Australia in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa for television cable sports network ESPN.[14]
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.
McCoist is the father to five boys.[15] His two youngest sons are by partner Vivien Ross. His three eldest sons are by his former wife, Allison, who divorced him after his affair with the actress Patsy Kensit.[16] McCoist, Ross and their sons reside in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire.
He was awarded an MBE in 1994 for his services to Scottish football.[7]
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.
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