Alistair Murdoch McCoist, MBE, is a Scottish former footballer. He began his playing career with St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland in 1981. He returned to Scotland two years later and signed with Rangers. He succeeded Walter Smith as Rangers manager in 2011, but the club then suffered from serious financial difficulties. In September 2015 he and Rangers mutually agreed to terminate his contract. He has since worked as a manager and pundit for the BBC.
About Ally McCoist in brief
Alistair Murdoch McCoist, MBE, is a Scottish former footballer. He began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland in 1981. He returned to Scotland two years later and signed with Rangers. He is currently ranked as the fifth highest goalscorer in the top tier of the Scottish football league system all time, having netted 260 times for Rangers and Kilmarnock between 1983 and 2001. He was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. He succeeded Walter Smith as Rangers manager in 2011, but the club then suffered from serious financial difficulties. The company running Rangers was put into liquidation in 2012 and the team were then placed in the fourth tier of Scottish league football. In September 2015 he and Rangers mutually agreed to terminate his contract. He has since worked as a manager and pundit for the BBC. He also won 61 caps for Scotland and is a member of the Scotland Football Hall of Famer. His high-school team coach, and chemistry teacher, was former Clyde and Scotland forward Archie Robertson, who died in 1978 just as his protégé’s career was taking off. He had been denied a move to St Mirren because Alex Ferguson thought he was not good enough. He started his media career between 1996 and 2007, when he was a team captain in the BBC sports quiz A Question of Sport. He helped Rangers win successive promotions to the second tier, but after a poor start to the 2014–15 season he handed in his 12-months’ notice in December 2014 and was placed on gardening leave.
He then became an assistant manager to Walter Smith at Rangers in 2007, before becoming manager of the club in 2011. His time at Sunderland was unsuccessful: he scored only nine goals in 65 appearances for a side struggling at the First Division. He later played for Kilm Carnock. He made his debut for St Johnston on 7 April 1979 in a 3–0 win over Raith Rovers. He didn’t score his first goal for the club until netting the third against Dumbarton in August 1980. He went on to score 23 goals in 43 appearances that season, including a consolation against Rangers in 3–1 defeat in Scottish Cup replay. With several English clubs interested in his signature including Sunderland, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Middlesbrough and Tottenham Hotspur, he started the 1981–82 season with four goals in five League Cup games including the opening goal in 2–0 wins over Celtic at Muirton Park. He followed up with a goal against European Champions Aston Villa on the opening day of the 1982–83 season. He scored only two goals during the 1981-82 season, against Nottingham Forest’s Nottingham Forest and his second against Brighton & Hove Albion, meaning he had matched his previous tally midway through the 1982-83 season through October 1982. He played for the Scotland under-18 team and former team and ex-St Johnstone and former St. Johnstone coach Archie Robertson.
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