Alistair Murdoch McCoist is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit.
McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone, before moving to English side Sunderland in 1981. He returned to his homeland two years later, signing with Rangers. McCoist had a highly successful career with Rangers, becoming the club's record goalscorer and winning nine successive league championships between 1988–89 and 1996–97. He later played for Kilmarnock.
McCoist was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. He is also a member of the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, having gained 61 international caps. A prolific striker, he is the fifth-highest all-time goalscorer in the top tier of the Scottish football league system, having scored 260 times for Rangers and Kilmarnock between 1983 and 2001.
Towards the end of his playing career, McCoist started a media career. Between 1996 and 2007, he was a team captain on the BBC sports quiz A Question of Sport. He began to scale back his media commitments in 2007, when he became an assistant manager to Walter Smith at Rangers. He succeeded Smith as Rangers manager in 2011, but the club then suffered from serious financial difficulties. Rangers went into liquidation in 2012 and the club was placed in the fourth tier of Scottish league football. McCoist helped them win successive promotions to the second tier, but after a poor start to the 2014–15 season McCoist handed in his 12 months' notice in December 2014 and was placed on gardening leave. In September 2015, McCoist and Rangers mutually agreed to terminate his contract.
