Ramos? I will take it, I think
utter match winner.
“Cooper controls Dublin’s back line and if referees need to be challenged he’s the first man up, like butter wouldn’t melt… Every team needs a Jonny Ramos!”
Real Madrid captain Ramos is one of soccer’s top defenders but is a controversial figure given how he conducts himself on the field at times with challenges on Liverpool players Loris Karius and Mo Salah in last season’s Champions League final just two that were singled out of late.
Cooper added: “I don’t know, like, you take it I guess. I don’t watch a vast amount of soccer but I know Sergio Ramos probably isn’t liked that much so it’s probably in some ways a bad thing.
“What did I interpret it as? I don’t know, it’s just someone’s opinion on me.
“Comments like that can pick up a bit of traction and then they can kind of snowball into, ‘He is a particular type of player’. I wouldn’t see myself as that player.
“Maybe incidents, over the year, and years, have contributed towards people maybe having that opinion but, look, when you play in a finite amount of space and time to make a potential decision, and sometimes you get it wrong…
“I don’t intentionally go to play in that way, in a nasty way, if that’s what people refer to me as.
“But, I don’t know,
I like to be known as someone who tries and is honest in what they do but if that somewhat oversteps the line, unintentionally from my point of view, then so be it.”