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Former Scotland and Rangers goalkeeper Andy Goram has died after “a short battle” with cancer at the age of 58.
Goram was capped 43 times for his country at football and four times at cricket – the only Scot to have played at the top level at both sports.
He helped Rangers win five Scottish Premier League titles, three Scottish Cups and two League Cups.
Goram was also on loan at Manchester United during the run-in as they won the Premier League title in 2000-01.
He was most recently goalkeeping coach with West of Scotland Football League club Cambuslang Rangers.
It was announced in April that Goram had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, which affects the long tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach, and later revealed he been given six months to live.
He also disclosed that he had turned down chemotherapy as it would only extend his life by three months.
Many tributes have been made on social media from former clubs, team-mates and rivals to the man who became affectionately known simply as “The Goalie” after Rangers posted on Saturday that they were “deeply saddened” to announce his death.
Born in Bury of a Scottish father, Goram signed for Oldham Athletic, then in England’s Second Division, after his release from West Bromwich Albion’s youth set-up and went on to make 195 appearances.
Sir Alex Ferguson had already handed him his Scotland debut by the time he moved to Hibernian in 1987 and he would captain the Edinburgh side for many of his 138 appearances before being sold to Rangers for £1m four years later.
The high point of Goram’s stay at Ibrox came in season 1992-93, when the Glasgow side narrowly missed out on reaching the Champions League final but won a fifth consecutive league title as they completed a domestic treble. He also received the Scottish Football Writers’ Association and SPFA player of the year awards.
Internationally, he was part of the Scotland squad that played at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups and Euro 92 and 96, but he walked out on the squad before the 1998 finals because of head coach Craig Brown’s preference at the time for long-time rival Jim Leighton.
After brief spells at Notts County and Sheffield United, Goram signed for Motherwell in January 1999, helping them finish fourth in the Scottish top flight the following year.
He played twice on loan at Old Trafford in Man United’s title run-in before a spell with Coventry City and a return to Scotland with Queen of the South, helping the Dumfries side lift the Scottish Challenge Cup in 2002.
After retiring at the end of the 2003-04 campaign following a season-long spell at Elgin City, he turned to coaching, with Motherwell, Clyde, Hamilton Academical, BSC Glasgow, Dunfermline Athletic and Airdrieonians among the clubs whose goalkeepers he assisted.
As a left-handed batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler, Goram played for a series of local-league clubs in England and Scotland before Rangers manager Walter Smith effectively ended his cricket career when he ordered him to concentrate on football.
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