Thrilled by sharing pitch with ‘Kaiser’

could do everything. I’ll never forget seeing that curly mop of white curls walking into the training ground. I thought we had a top, top player in our midst and I wasn’t wrong. I was 17, he was only 14, but he wasn’t overawed.”

Cooper later went on to play against Beckenbauer when Aberdeen faced Hamburg in the third round of the 1981-82 Uefa Cup. Aberdeen won the first leg at Pittodrie 3-2 but lost the second leg 3-1. Cooper turned 18 the day before the first leg.

“I enjoyed a lot of great days in my career but getting to play against Beckenbauer was one of the most thrilling,” Cooper told the Aberdeen Evening Express in 2011.

“I turned 18 the day before he played against Aberdeen at Pittodrie. To actually be on the same pitch as the man who remains my all-time football hero was the best present I could ever get.”