Ex-football star Cooper, 54, dies after collapsing
● Scotland boss recalls team-mate and friend as fine player and ‘tremendous lad’
Tributes have been paid to former Aberdeen midfielder Neale Cooper who has died after being found injured outside his home.
The 54-year-old was part of the legendary Dons team which won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in Gothenburg in 1983.
He died after being found collapsed in a stairwell at his home.
During his career, Cooper also played for Aston Villa, Rangers, Reading, Dunfermline Athletic and Ross County and managed Ross County, Peterhead, Hartlepool United and Gillingham.
Former Aberdeen midfielder Neale Cooper has died after being found injured at his home.
Cooper, a member of the Dons team who won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in Gothenburg in 1983, was in intensive care after police were called to a report of a man who had collapsed within a communal stairwell at his home in the city in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Officers are trying to contact a taxi driver who they believe dropped off Mr Cooper and three companions at the Ferguson Court area of Bucksburn at about 12:30am.
The footballer was found unconscious at 1:45am. It is believed he had suffered head injuries.
Aberdeen FC wrote on the club’s official Twitter account: “The club is deeply shocked and saddened to hear that our legendary midfielder and Gothenburg Great, Neale Cooper, has tragically passed away.”
Cooper, who was 54, also played for Aston Villa, Rangers, Reading, Dunfermline and Ross County before managing the latter team and also Hartlepool, Gillingham and Peterhead.
Tributes poured in last night for the footballing star as news of his death emerged.
Hartlepool United, where he was manager twice, said in a statement: “Our thoughts and sincere condolences are with his family and friends at this time. We are heartbroken.”
Detective Inspector David Howieson said that the taxi had picked up a 54-year-old man, believed to be Mr Cooper, as well as another man and two women at about 12:30am on Aberdeen’s Union Street near the junction with Chapel Street before dropping them at Mr Cooper’s home.
He said: “There are no apparent suspicious circumstances, however enquiries are continuing to establish how the man came to be injured.
“We would appeal for the driver of a taxi, described as a black people carrier, which picked the four people up at Union Street in Aberdeen in the early hours of Sunday, to contact us on 101.
He added: “The taxi driver is described as speaking with a local accent and had a beard. Anyone with information which may help our enquiries is asked to get in touch.”
Mr Cooper’s son, Alex, is also a professional footballer who currently plays for Fresno United in the US, having started his career at Liverpool before playing for Ross County and St Mirren. He has two other children. Mr Cooper was born in Darjeeling, India – where his father Douglas was working at the time as a tea plantation manager.
Alex Mcleish has paid tribute to Neale Cooper after hearing the news of his friend and former Aberdeen team-mate’s death yesterday following a fall early on Sunday morning .
The Scotland manager recalled both his once “curly mop of white curls” and Cooper’s reputation as the “the new Franz Beckenbauer” when turning up for training at Aberdeen for the first time in the late 1970s.
Mcleish, in Lima finalising preparations for his side’s match against Peru in the early hours of tomorrow morning, was clearly devastated by the shock news and a pall has been cast over Scotland’s first game in South America since the World Cup finals in 1978.
The former midfielder’s death means the brilliant Aberdeen side which defeated Real Madrid in extra time to lift the Cup-winners’ Cup in 1983 will never again reunite as a team. Cooper was only 54 – the youngest of the Gothenburg heroes.
Mcleish last saw Cooper, who also played for Rangers and Aston Villa among other clubs, at the Gothenburg side’s last reunion event just over a fortnight ago in Aberdeen. “It’s horrible, tragic,” he said.
“Neale had a heart attack last year and I didn’t know many details this time other than he had a fall at home. I kept in touch with John Hewitt and Neil Simpson and the guys up there in Aberdeen and I’ll be in touch with Neale’s family. It’s horrific to hear this bad news.”
“Neale was a massive character, a tremendous lad and always was throughout his career,” added Mcleish. “He was such an affable guy. I was praying he would pull through.
“He was a battler and we were all together in hoping he would pull through.”
“I saw him last at our Gothenburg night a few weeks ago and he was in such good spirits,” he added. “I spoke to him about his heart attack and he said he was recovering well. I knew that anyway because his family had kept me up to speed.
“He was such an important player, for Aberdeen in particular, and he had a great career. When I went to Aberdeen he was supposed to be the new Franz Beckenbauer.”
Mcleish recalled meeting the confident Cooper, who was already being heavily touted, for the first time.
“I saw him when he was 14 and I arrived on the training ground and he stuck out a mile,” he said. “I remember thinking: ‘Who’s that guy – he’s absolutely brilliant’. Then, because of the partnership Willie [Miller] and I formed he moved into midfield and he became a very good footballer with a very aggressive style of play, but then he
“Neale was a massive character, a tremendous lad and always was throughout his career… such an affable guy”
Neale Cooper was the youngest member of the Aberdeen side who claimed a piece of footballing immortality by defeating Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final of 1983.
It is a painful reminder of life’s often unfathomable vagaries that he should be the first of that iconic squad, revered as the Gothenburg greats by Dons supporters, to pass away.
Cooper’s death at the age of 54 has stunned not only all of those connected with the Pittodrie club but many in the rest of the Scottish football community and beyond who came to admire a fine footballer and endearing human being.
A teenage prodigy who flourished under Alex Ferguson’s peerless management during the greatest era in Aberdeen’s history, Cooper combined an unflinching physical presence with a technical ability which was far greater that he was often given credit for.
He also, more often than not, played with a smile on his face. It mirrored his approach to life itself, an appreciation of the moment at hand perhaps shaped by his father’s death at the age of only 39.
Cooper, born in Darjeeling in India where his dad managed a tea plantation, was raised in the Airyhall district of Aberdeen. He joined the Dons directly from Hazlehead Academy and was quickly identified by Ferguson as a player of genuine substance.
He seemed best suited to a role in central defence but that simply wasn’t an option at a time when Aberdeen had the outstanding pairing of Willie Miller and Alex Mcleish in that department. Cooper became a holding midfielder, operating it to such good effect during his time with the Dons that German icon Franz Beckenbauer was once moved to comment he had rarely seen anyone do it better.
In 245 appearances for Aberdeen over six seasons, scoring ten goals, Cooper won every major domestic honour – two league titles, four Scottish Cups and one League Cup. The icing on the cake, of course, was the Gothenburg triumph against Real Madrid as he helped the Dons overcome Europe’s most storied club 2-1 in extra time.
His success at Aberdeen would come at a physical cost as injuries blighted the rest of his career after his departure to Aston Villa in 1986. Cooper was later to observe, albeit without a hint of bitterness, that he and other younger players were “overplayed” by Ferguson.
His unfulfilling stint at Villa was ended in surprising fashion when Rangers, under Graeme Souness, signed him in October 1988. Fate decreed that his debut was at Pittodrie, where he scored for his new club on an infamous day in which Ian Durrant was badly injured in a tackle by Neil Simpson.
“I don’t talk about what happened,” Cooper reflected in an interview with Aidan Smith on these pages in 2016. “There was an atmosphere that day and I know me changing sides was part of it. It was a hard game. Both guys suffered massively. They’re my friends and I’m really close to the two of them. Ian’s a great pal, one of the best I’ve played with, such a wonderful guy. Simmy was my playing partner and is a long-time friend. That wasn’t a nice day for anyone.”
Cooper won a League Cup medal with Rangers only two weeks later, irony again a factor as they beat the Dons 3-2 in a Hampden classic. But he made only 20 appearances in total for the Ibrox club before a return to Aberdeen where he was unable to play because of injuries. Spells with Reading, Dunfermline – where he was a First Division winner in 1996 – and Ross County completed his playing career.
Cooper moved into management where he sparked Ross County’s remarkable rise through the ranks of Scottish football, overseeing back-toback promotions in 1999 and 2000, before taking charge of Hartlepool United, Gillingham and Peterhead with varying degrees of success. He was also an accomplished and hugely entertaining after-dinner speaker, reflecting his always engaging personality, the absence of which leaves a void felt in Aberdeen and beyond today.
Cooper combined an unflinching physical presence with a technical ability far greater then he was often given credit for