“The best people will always be in demand and Alistair is one of those people.” – Mark Hateley.

A career in football that people could only dream of, a spell managing his boyhood club, a Hollywood star and now a national treasure when it comes to the broadcasting world. Is there anything Ally McCoist can’t do?

The 62-year-old has now been awarded an OBE as part of King Charles’ birthday honours list for services to football and to broadcasting. It’s no surprise that he underplayed it a bit when asked about it and looked in genuine disbelief that he was getting it.

“I’ve been awarded for whatever reasons to whoever, an OBE”, he said as he was asked about it by his former talkSPORT and current TNT host Laura Woods during coverage of the Champions League on Tuesday night.

It’s difficult to turn the TV or radio on these days without the Rangers and Scotland legend’s voice booming out of the speakers. He couldn’t even manage to take the night off despite an early start to head to Windsor Castle to collect his OBE from the Royal Family, which he has now received.  

‘For his service to association football and to broadcasting’ was the reason given for the man known to many as ‘Super’ to be named on King Charles’ birthday honours list earlier this year.

You’d even struggle to find a Celtic fan who doesn’t have some sort of fondness towards McCoist these days.

Although that might not have been the case this morning given he decided to phone his old pal and Celtic supporting talkSPORT host Alan Brazil while on his way to collect his award so that he could wind him up about the 7-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night.

It comes as no shock to his former strike partner Mark Hateley that he has been given the award as he said: “It speaks for itself. He’s one of the most in-demand ex-players, he’s played at a good level, managed, played at international level and he’s very smart to go with it. He deserves everything he gets.

(Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

“He had the personality for it but you never looked past the next weekend when you’re a footballer. He’s a smart boy, he’s very very smart. You can see that as a player. You don’t get in that many goalscoring positions or see a game as he did and be as successful as he did if you’re not.

“He’s the only Scottish player to win the European Golden Boot and he did it twice on the trot. All I’ll say is he was playing with me when he did that…”

“You listen to him on co-comms or when he’s on a panel and his general all round demeanour, he’s funny, he’s quick, he’s intelligent. He ticks all the boxes as a media man.

“Everyone wants him and he can work where he wants to. The best people will always be in demand and Alistair is one of those people.”

McCoist is Rangers through and through and has been connected to the club for more than 40 years now since joining as a player in 1983.

He’s been through the good times and bad times, but you’d think he was a member of the family with the way Rangers fans speak about him. Family is importance to him too and that was highlighted with his story of when he first signed for Rangers.

For a boyhood fan, it was a dream come true to sign for the club and many might have looked to get the adulation of his friends who would have wanted the same growing up in East Kilbride, but for McCoist there was only one person he wanted to phone so they heard the news first, his granny.

“I went to a pay phone and phoned my granny in Thornliebank, the first person I phoned”, he recalled. “I can still hear her voice. You could’ve given her £1million it wouldn’t have meant as much”

It wasn’t all easy for him to start with at Ibrox. His old teammate Derek Ferguson recently revealed on a podcast that McCoist was in tears at times in the dressing room from the stick he received from fans after a slow start.

It quickly turned around though and he remains Rangers record goalscorer, he won the European golden boot on two different occasions and won a total of 20 trophies for the club with 10 league titles, nine league cups and a Scottish Cup to his name.

There were 19 international goals and a couple of major tournaments for him to enjoy for Scotland, and he ended his career with a short stint at Kilmarnock.

By this stage he had already started the broadcasting career that took him into the hearts of the entire nation and not just Rangers fans.

He was still playing for Rangers when he became a team captain on A Question of Sport. Famously, he played a fictional Celtic legend by the name of Jackie McQuillan in A Shot At Glory where he even wore a Rangers shirt under the green and white hoops to make sure he wasn’t touching the top.

A generation of FIFA playing gamers know him from his commentary alongside John Motson on there too. On and off the pitch, it’s fair to say he’s become a bit of a legend.

Stints in coaching and management saw him join Walter Smith and Tommy Burns in the Scotland set-up. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Burns wasn’t too keen on joining the other two at Rangers when they returned to their old club in early 2007.

The three were great friends, though, and there’s not many more poignant images in Scottish football than the sight of McCoist and Smith carrying Burns’ coffin when the Celtic legend passed away in 2008. It was just days after Smith and McCoist had taken charge of Rangers in the UEFA Cup Final, and it was a mark of their friendship despite their respective club allegiances.

His own spell as Rangers manager didn’t go quite as well throughout the turmoil of administration and being demoted to the bottom tier of Scottish football before he eventually left in 2014. He was out of the spotlight for a while after this before getting back into punditry and the 2018 World Cup really fired him back into the mainstream.

Alongside Jon Champion, they captured the imagination of the watching public during their time in Russia.

"Kazan has come a long way since it fell to Ivan the Terrible in 1552" was a line that had everyone in stitches.

Another favourite from that time was while discussing Sochi and he uttered the words: “I can totally understand why Stalin had his summer Dacha down here. It’s a magnificent place, it really is.”

A successful show alongside Alan Brazil and then Laura Woods followed on talkSPORT and it’s still going strong with Jeff Stelling in the hotseat and he’s rarely off TV.

Someone he works closely with is Scottish football commentator Rory Hamilton, who despite just being off a flight back from commentating on Borussia Dortmund vs Celtic, was keen to add his congratulations to McCoist and give insight into working with him too.

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He said: “The incredible thing about Ally is a lot of people assume that the character is a persona and an act but its not, he’s exactly as he comes across in all situation. There’s an enthusiasm, a humour and a genuine caring person behind it all.

“You can see it even on flights. Every fan who comes up he’ll have a laugh and a joke and take a picture with them and he does it with a smile. He’s brilliant to work with.

“One of the biggest compliments I can pay him is when we’re discussing who is going to be playing which role, everyone wants Ally with them. Whether its Emma (Dodds) in the studio, me in commentary or anyone else, we all want Ally.

“Not only is he brilliant to be around and be with and to work with, but he carries you and he makes you a part of the Ally performance and you get dragged along with him. It’s great to be around him.

“The fascinating thing is it’s not just about football. He loves his football but he can talk to you about anything about your life and what you’re doing and where you’ve been and getting your recommendations.

“I remember the first time I walked on a game where he was working and it wasn’t directly with him and I remember leaving the TV compound and Grant Phillips, the boss, asked if anyone was driving back to Glasgow with a spare seat and I said yeah and he said ‘oh good, cause Ally is looking for a lift’.

“Now I was nervous, I was going to have Ally in my beaten up old car. I was wondering how I would entertain him for three hours and honestly, he was chatting away about the Munros I’d climbed, he was chatting about fishing up at my mum and dad’s house and all kind of things. He has a genuine interest in not just his own world but the world around him.

“I get it all the time that he can’t be like that but he is. I was just over in Malmo with him and he’s brilliant craic. He wants to go out and have a meal with the crew and chat away. He’s a top guy.

“I messaged my mum from the hotel at Copenhagen airport and I said ‘I wonder what my 12-year-old self would have made of this scene sitting on a fourth point in an airport hotel bar with Ally McCoist’.

“He was moving glasses around the table working out if certain scenarios were offside and messaging referees to see who was right. He’s just brilliant.”

You only have to look at the reaction Newcastle fans had when he appeared on stage at a pub before their game against Manchester City at the weekend when they serenaded him with a birthday message.

That might have been different if they had remembered his short spell at rivals Sunderland in the early 1980s but the reality is that no matter where in the country he is, McCoist seems to get a great reception – except maybe Celtic Park.

As he collects his OBE, he is now a national treasure, he really is.