The quality that made Liam Cooper stand out as a Leeds United captain for me was that he was a consistently strong leader regardless of being in or out of the first team.
Whether form or injury prevented his inclusion in the starting XI, you knew he was captain because his influence was all-pervading among the squad. Of his 284 appearances during a decade at Elland Road, he made 220 starting with the armband.
Every supporter will have their own memory of Cooper:
Injuring himself scoring a vital header in the 2-2 draw against Cardiff City in Daniel Farke’s first game in charge typified his commitment. When the promotion season was threatening to implode, it was Cooper who rescued a point by stabbing home from close range at Brentford. United never looked back after that moment and romped to the Premier League.
But maybe it was the subtle skills that made Cooper such a natural leader of men. I will never forget when Samuel Saiz, guilty of indifference as much as brilliance, was substituted during a match at Elland Road and self-combusted as he went to the dugout. It was Cooper who moved several places along the bench to calm his teammate down.
When he lifted the Championship trophy at Elland Road during the pandemic, I was fortunate to go pitchside after the match against Charlton and with an extended microphone managed to record Cooper, Luke Ayling, Stuart Dallas and Kalvin Phillips singing: “Leeds are falling apart again.”
He got Leeds.
So it is fitting that he joins Bulgaria’s Central Sports Club of the Army aka CSKA Sofia. Cooper the trooper – who understood his men, his regiment and who he was fighting for.
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