The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
‘Unbelievable’ player likened to Best
Cooper was born in Hamilton in 1956.
He joined Clydebank and inspired the club to the Second Division title in 197576.
Arsenal, Aston Villa and Coventry all tried to sign him but he joined boyhood heroes Rangers in 1977 for £100,000.
Cooper won three league medals, seven League Cups and three Scottish Cups with Rangers.
Two such gems among the 75 goals he scored for Rangers were a free kick against Aberdeen in the League Cup Final in 1987 and his finest strike of all in the Drybrough Cup Final against Celtic in 1979.
He joined Motherwell in August 1989 for £50,000 which is still regarded as the best bit of player transfer business done in the club’s history.
An obvious highlight during his time in claret and amber was Motherwell’s 1991 Scottish Cup triumph.
In December 1993 he returned to Clydebank where he was planning to end his career before tragedy struck.
Despite his recognised talent, Cooper won only 22 Scotland caps including two appearances in the World Cup Finals in Mexico in 1986.
After Cooper’s death, Motherwell renamed Fir Park’s North Stand in his honour.
In 2017 he was also named as the overall winner of the best player in Motherwell’s history.
Former AC Milan and Netherlands hero Ruud Gullit is one of Davie Cooper’s biggest fans.
He named him in his all-time XI among some of football’s greatest-ever players, including Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff. Ronaldinho and Zinedine Zidane were on the bench.
The Dutch legend also compared him to Manchester United winger George Best.
In 1984, Rangers played a mid-season friendly – called the KLM Challenge Cup – against a Feyenoord side that included Johan Cruyff and Gullit.
Gullit said: “I played against him for Feyenoord in a friendly. and I saw this guy and I thought, unbelievable.
“I don’t think he got the recognition he deserved as a footballer.
“Maybe because he was homesick he wanted to always play in Glasgow and that is a pity as not a lot of people know him.
“But for me he was an unbelievable player. He was one of the greatest players in the world of football.
“There’s not much footage of him, which makes it even harder.
“He was almost like a George Best type – skilful, left-side.”