Ally McCoist Top Goalscorer (355)

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

McCoist began his playing career with St Johnstone, moved to Sunderland in 1981, and returned to Scotland to join Rangers in 1983. He scored 260 top-flight league goals for Rangers and Kilmarnock combined. He was Europe's top goalscorer twice in a row (1992 and 1993) and won Scottish football's two most prestigious Player of the Year awards in 1992.

In Their Own Story

McCoist's tally of 31 goals in 1987–88 could not prevent Celtic regaining the league title, but Rangers recaptured their crown in 1988–89, the first of nine-in-a-row. During the 1990–91 season, after attending the Cheltenham Festival when players were given free time prior to back-to-back games against Celtic, McCoist was dropped from the match squad by Souness and forced to apologise in a press conference for breaching team discipline. He returned for the second match after Mark Hateley was sent off in the first, but Rangers lost both without scoring. When Walter Smith took over in April 1991, McCoist returned to the fore and came back from a hernia on the final day of the season as the club won the title. Despite starting the next season on the bench due to further minor injuries, McCoist won both the Players' Player of the Year and the Sportswriters' awards. He secured his position as top European goalscorer with two long-range strikes in the final fixture of the 1991–92 season away to Aberdeen, a match he later admitted he had barely been in a condition to play, having spent the previous night drinking with students in the team hotel.

Reader's Guide

McCoist captained Rangers for six of the nine consecutive titles (1992–1997), while Graeme Souness captained the first three (1989–1991). He is not the only player to score over 250 league goals for a single Scottish club; Jimmy McGrory also achieved that feat for Celtic.

Did You Know?

• McCoist scored a hat-trick in the 1984 League Cup final victory over Celtic.
• He was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
• McCoist gained 61 international caps for Scotland.
• He worked as a team captain on the BBC sports quiz A Question of Sport from 1996 to 2007.