Saw Gordon Ramsay (celebrity chef) on Soccer Aid last week.

Did he REALLY play for Glasgow Rangers in his youth?

The official line is:-

Born in 1966 in Scotland, Gordon Ramsay aspired to a life-long career as a professional footballer. He was, in fact, a very good soccer player and joined the Glasgow Rangers (Pro) at the age of 15. He stayed with the Rangers from 1982 until 1985 when a knee injury ended his career.
He is now a high profile celebrity chef in England.

There is talk Gordon Ramsay played a couple of pre season friendlies when he was about 17 years old.

I know he also played in Joe Reillys -*test*-('")imonial match for a "Rangers Select" against East Kilbride Thistle at EK showground in 1985.

Joe Reilly was an EK Thistle player and a good friend of Ally McCoist (well known EK Calderwood boy made good) probably the reason why Rangers legend McCoist brought a team to play in his -*test*-('")imonial.

I read Gordon Ramsay played againsy St Johnstone & Morton in friendlies (20 minutes and 10 minutes as a 17 year old sub)

I think its the media that go on about him as a ex-Rangers player.
At Socer Aid last week he said "I was once connected with Rangers in my youth" so he tends to play the whole hype down to be fair to him.

Being a resident of Calderwood myself, I would like to point out that "Super Ally" is by far the most well known of East Kilbrides footballing sons, but he's not the only local boy to have found fame in football.

East Kilbride has produced a number of players to have made good, here's a couple I can think of just off the top of my head.......


Rab McKinnon : Played for a few clubs lower league clubs down south before returning north and becoming a Motherwell hero and Scotland player, before going abroad to Holland. Still playing, now for home town team EK Thistle.

Robbie Winters : Started off at Dundee Utd, before moving on to Aberdeen in a swap deal involving Billy Dodds AND £750,000, where he won his only Scotland cap. Lost his way up in the cold north, so moved further away to a colder place and now plays for Norwegian team S.K Brann.

Jamie McAllister : Started out at Queen of the South before signing for Aberdeen in 1999. He later played for Livingston, and is now at Hearts where he earned a Scotland cap.

Theres loads more EK boys that have enriched the professional footballing ranks but I will need to spend a bit of time thinking about them as just remembering these three has dazzled my senses and befuddled my thinking.........