Exclusive:
ITV bosses are hoping it’s third time lucky – as sporting favourite has turned them down twice before
A football star who’s never quite made it into the jungle is in “advanced talks” with just a few weeks to go until the new series starts.
Scottish football legend Ally McCoist is being courted for I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, with bosses “very hopeful” it’ll be third time lucky, after the Rangers hero turned them down in 2019 and 2022. The former player and manager turned pundit and radio host was involved in negotiations two years ago, but baulked at the last minute, with the same thing previously happening three years earlier. Now insiders say they feel confident that Ally, 62, will be in this year’s line-up when the show kicks off next month.
One source said: “Ally has such a huge fan base thanks to his years of commentating and punditry, plus his long stint on A Question of Sport. He’d be great for the jungle – as his wife and kids have been telling him forever – so everyone is really hopeful that this will be the year.” If he does sign, he will join a line-up thought to include former pop star Tulisa Contostavlos, dancer Oti Mabuse and Corrie’s Alan Halsall.
Explaining why he turned it down in 2022, the dad-of-five suggested it was because of the creepy crawlies, saying: “I’m not a fan of cockroaches.” Speaking at the time, he said that many of the other challenges wouldn’t bother him too much. “The bit where you jump out of the helicopter or plane at the start – I’d like to do that. But then the rest is downhill. You don’t really know until you’re there, but I actually think being in the coffin with the rats and snakes – from where I’m sitting right now – I don’t think that would bother me that much.”
He has also told how his wife Vivian and their two sons are huge fans of the show and – along with his three older kids from his first marriage – were so annoyed when he knocked back the chance to appear in 2019, they stopped speaking to him. He laughed: “The kids aren’t talking to me at all. The younger ones would love it and the older ones would love it as well. They are going to school and they are getting it off their pals.”
Speaking after fellow football fave Harry Redknapp won the show in 2018, he added: “My wife is not giving a monkey’s about me eating spiders and earwigs, she is just wanting a two stretch in that Versace hotel. It’s the biggest thing we watch as a family, it’s brilliant entertainment. Harry was fantastic last year.” He also said he was a huge fan of presenters Ant and Dec, describing them as “magic”.
Sports stars have a good track record on the show, with Ally’s former Question of Sport rival Phil Tuffnell winning the 2002 series, in which footballer John Fashanu finished second. Others to end up as King or Queen of the jungle include footballer Jill Scott, motorcycle racer Carl Fogarty and tennis ace Martina Navratilova. A show spokesman said “Any names suggested for I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here are just speculation”
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