SUPER COOPER
A BRAZILIAN TRAPPED IN A SCOTSMAN’S BODY
MAYBE it’s the fact it was captured on what looks like your old man’s cine-camera from the 50s.
The wobbly, grainy images make it look like it belongs in another time and place. In fact, it belonged on another planet.
Davie Cooper could take you to places no ordinary footballer could.
The Drybrough Cup might have been a short-lived tournament but it will live forever in the memory thanks to the day Cooper sprinkled his twinkle-toed stardust all over Hampden.
Sandy Jardine scored the goal of his life that day as Rangers beat Celtic 3-1 in the 1979 Final. His run from his own penalty box into Celtic’s and the left-foot finish should have been the stuff of legend. Yet it wasn’t even the best goal in the match.
It was eclipsed by one Rangers fans voted the best in their club’s history in 2002 and that finished runner-up only to Diego Maradona’s second goal against England at the 1986 World Cup in a “greatest individual goal ever scored” feature in the Guardian.
Cooper controlled a pass from Alex MacDonald on his chest, flicked the ball over the tightly-marking Roddie MacDonald, then played keepy-up to jink between Tom McAdam and Murdo MacLeod.
Alan Sneddon moved in but he too was bamboozled by another flick high into the air and when the ball came down Cooper controlled on his chest then placed it left-footed – naturally – past the advancing Peter Latchford.
It was a thing of balletic beauty – a dance that lasted 17 seconds.
Fast forward to 1987, the League Cup Final against Aberdeen – same stadium, same end of the ground.
This time it’s a goal of ballistic beauty. A rocket of a free-kick that exploded behind Jim Leighton, prompting Ally McCoist to quip that the keeper nearly caught it on the way back out.
That the same player could score two goals of such contrasting brilliance said much about Davie Cooper – but not everything.
His extraordinary talent won him three leagues, four Scottish Cups – the last with Motherwell after leaving Rangers in 1989 after 12 years – and seven league cups. His 22 Scotland caps were a meagre return for a player Graeme Souness insisted could have played in any league in the world and possessed more natural ability than his great pal Kenny Dalglish.
Yet Cooper’s personality, an introverted home-bird who happily spent his entire career at three clubs within a 21-mile radius, meant he had no desire to spread his wings. Cooper loved his football and his racing – and not always in that order.
But the introvert was transformed when he pulled on his boots. He didn’t have to be the quickest and he didn’t need his right foot for anything other than balance. Not when his left foot and his brain performed in perfect synchronicity, gliding past outstretched legs then releasing the pass at just the right time. “He must have made 50 per cent of my goals,” McCoist reckons.
That Cooper’s life was cut so short by a brain haemorrhage on March 23, 1995, is still felt deeply by the Scottish football community and beyond.
Ruud Gullit named him in a World XI of players he’d played with or against – the midfield comprising Kaka, Rijkaard, Maradona and Cooper. Cruyff and van Basten were up front.
That’s the kind of company Cooper could have kept.
Gullit said: “I played against him in the European Cup when he was with Glasgow Rangers and he was a really skilful player – unbelievably skilful.”
McCoist used to say ‘good morning’ every day to a photograph of his pal that sat on his desk in the manager’s office at the Rangers training ground
He loved him as a player but even more as a man. He said: “Davie wasn’t merely a footballer – he was an entertainer and one of the best.
“I feel blessed because my sons have the opportunity to enjoy Davie when he was at the height of his powers, thanks to the wonders of new technology.
“The great goals, the mesmerising artistry, the outrageous pieces of trickery – they’re there on YouTube or DVD and I would advise any youngsters with an interest in football to check them out.
“Still to this day it’s the hardest shot I’ve ever seen on a football park, the one against Aberdeen. Big Jim Leighton, to be fair to him he dived but it was after the ball hit the net.
“I reckon he must have set up about 50 per cent of my goals – he was a genius. He was one of those players that you knew if you made a run of
any sort of description he would see it and find you if it was on.
“His left foot has been described as a wand and that’s exactly what it was. He had tremendous vision and selfishly from my point of view he was an absolute dream to play with.
“Essentially he was one of the old school, a modest lad who was happiest on his home turf – a real local hero of his generation.
“I’ve never forgotten Davie and I never will. The fashion in which he was taken from us at just 39 was very cruel. But it does mean his talent never ages.”
Souness admits his decision to let him go in 1989 – and the manner in which he went on to perform at Motherwell, winning the Cup in 1991 and only missing out on the 1990 World Cup through injury, was a mistake.
He said: “Davie was as technically gifted as any player I ever worked with both as a manager or a player. You would put him up there with John Barnes, Matt Le Tissier and Tugay, anyone you want. He had more natural ability than Kenny Dalglish, which is high praise.
“But it was all combined with him being quite an unusual character.
“He was someone who was never looking for attention. He didn’t say much but when he did have something to say then everyone in the dressing room would take note and sit up and listen.
“We lost him in his prime and what was shocking is that it happened to someone who was as fit as he was.
“It just showed me how fragile life is. To lose someone at such a young age was horrendous, someone who was so revered.
“He was a special man and special talent. There was nobody like him back then and there’s nobody like him now.”
Ray Wilkins, another supreme talent taken too soon, described Cooper as “a Brazilian trapped in a Scotsman’s body”.
Terry Butcher? He pays this tribute: “I’d rate him better than David Beckham in terms of free-kicks and corners. He was a magnificent talent and a wonderful character.”
But perhaps the most fitting description came from Walter Smith, who gave the eulogy at Cooper’s funeral as the entire country united to mourn his passing.
The former Rangers manager said: “God gave Davie Cooper a talent. He would not be disappointed with how it was used.”