Buzzing Ally McCoist says he was subject to a bit of ribbing about his suit before he met Prince William to receive his OBE.
But that was followed by a lovely chat with the Prince about football, broadcasting and family life. The Rangers hero was handed the honour at Windsor Castle today for services to sport and broadcasting and was snapped beaming as he chatted with the Prince during the ceremony.
He revealed the two had met previously which made the chat a bit less awkward than it might have been meeting for the first time. It also helped that he knew what team the Aston Villa-daft Royal supported – and the fact they had a huge Champions League game with Bayern Munich on the immediate horizon.
McCoist said: “I think the fact that we had met before and chatted before was a good degree of comfort. It was great, it was special. You sometimes worry will there be things to say, will there be things to talk about, but he puts everybody at ease. I really enjoyed the couple of minutes’ conversation we had.”
“I’m obviously well aware that the Prince is an Aston Villa fan – they’ve got a very, very big game tonight, which I think he’s going to. So we spoke about that, and just generally working in broadcasting and life, really.”
Speaking to the Scottish Sun, McCoist said his boys had been at the wind-up about his suit before he visited the castle. He added: “The lads were having a little bit of fun at my expense, saying the suits I used to wear were a little bit tighter on me than they are now! I had to get one organised for today and I managed to do that, thankfully.
“I was really lucky because the one thing the Prince of Wales is well-versed in is he knows his sport, and certainly his football. I had met him before on a flight to Aberdeen.
“So we spoke about that, we spoke about his own team, he’s a big Aston Villa fan. They’ve got a big game tonight. And he was interested to see how my family were doing and how my boys were getting on. It was a lovely little chat.”
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