Colin Cooper

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Colin Cooper
Personal information
Full name	Colin Terence Cooper
Date of birth	February 28, 1967 (age 40)
Place of birth	Durham, England
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Middlesbrough (coach)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984–1991 1991–1993 1993–1998 1998–2006 2004	Middlesbrough Millwall Nottingham Forest Middlesbrough → Sunderland (loan)	188 0(6) 077 0(6) 180 (20) 158 0(5) 003 0(0)
National team
1988–1989 1995	England U21 England	008 0(0) 002 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Colin Terence Cooper (born February 28, 1967 in Durham, England) is a former English footballer, who became a legend at Middlesbrough.

He plies his trade as a centre back, but is equally useful playing as a full-back. He spent the first seven years of his professional career contracted to Middlesbrough, making 188 league appearances and scoring six league goals in the process. During this time, he helped Middlesbrough through liquidation in 1986.

In the summer of 1991, he was transferred to Division 2 side Millwall for the lowly sum of £300,000. He spent 2 fairly successful seasons with Millwall.

After impressing several big name clubs, he decided to move to Nottingham Forest in 1993 for £1,700,000. It was at Forest where Colin arguably played the best football of his career. His form even earned him two England caps in 1995.

After experiencing the joys of 2 promotions and the heart-break of a relegation, "Super Coops" was re-purchased by his first club, Middlesbrough, in a £2,500,000 deal. Many people questioned the signing of the stalwart from Nottingham Forest, but Colin has proved to many people that he is more than able of playing Premiership football. He has maintained a consistent level of play throughout the past seven years that he has spent with Middlesbrough, and can always be relied upon to do a job. In 2003-04, he spent some time on loan with Sunderland.

In 2005, Colin was awarded a one-year contract extension, which will saw him play until he is 39 years of age.

Colin has recently started regularly appearing on the late night football review programme Soccer Night, which is hosted by Roger Tames. During this programme, three legendary figures representing one of each of the North-Easts top three clubs (Middlesbrough, Sunderland, and Newcastle United) come to the studio and discusses recent footballing events.

In June 2006, Colin was officially given a job with the Middlesbrough coaching staff, as the Reserve team coach, after he retired from playing. Following Steve Round's departure from the club in December 2006, Cooper was promoted to a more active role with the First team.

[edit] Stats

Statistics for league appearances only.

Club	Season	Games	Goals	Division
Middlesbrough	1984-85	0	0	Division 2
	1985-86	11	0	Division 2
	1986-87	46	0	Division 3
	1987-88	43	2	Division 2
	1988-89	35	2	Division 1
	1989-90	21	2	Division 2
	1990-91	32	0	Division 2
Millwall	1991-92	36	2	Division 2
	1992-93	41	4	Division 1
Nottingham Forest	1993-94	37	7	Division 1
	1994-95	35	1	Premiership
	1995-96	37	5	Premiership
	1996-97	36	2	Premiership
	1997-98	35	5	Division 1
Middlesbrough	1998-99	32	1	Premiership
	1999-00	26	0	Premiership
	2000-01	27	1	Premiership
	2001-02	18	2	Premiership
	2002-03	20	0	Premiership
	2003-04	19	0	Premiership
Sunderland	2003-04	3	0	Division 1 (on loan)
Middlesbrough	2004-05	15	0	Premiership
	2005-06	1	0	Premiership
Total		606	37