It is shortly after 10am when Liam Cooper answers his mobile phone. He’s already got a match under his belt by this time in the morning, just not in the sport he would ideally like.
Padel, the racquet sport rapidly growing in popularity across the UK, has proven to be an invaluable outlet for Cooper’s competitive streak. The former Leeds United captain has been unemployed for more than three months, searching for his next club and challenge in football.
After 10 months in Bulgaria, Cooper and CSKA Sofia agreed to terminate his contract at the end of July. Since then, the centre-back has been trying to stay fit and find a new team in the UK.
“It’s difficult,” Cooper tells The Athletic. “If you speak to anybody in my situation, they’ll tell you the same. You know you’ve got to do it. It’s part of our lives. Psychologically, as well, it keeps you fresh.
“The worry does start to set in. Is that call from a club going to come? There’s the network you have around you as well. I’ve got an amazing wife, kids, and family and friends around me, which keep me on the straight and narrow.
“You miss that competitive edge, that needing to go and win. The padel’s helping with that, but it’s nothing like getting three points on a Saturday afternoon after a full week’s training.”
The Scotland international hopes he will not have to wait much longer. Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen has said Cooper is among the free agents the crisis-hit Championship club are hoping to sign.
Liam Cooper holds off a challenge from France’s Kylian Mbappe while playing for Scotland (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Cooper would have signed long before now, if not for the recruitment restrictions put on Wednesday by the English Football League (EFL), which governs the second, third and fourth tiers of the domestic game. The financial regulations breached by the club during former chairman Dejphon Chansiri’s reign mean the club is banned from registering new players.
Being forced into administration and a recent influx of cash from supporter spending have helped raise hopes of the transfer restrictions being relaxed. Cooper corroborates Pedersen’s interest and is still waiting on the green light.
Cooper turned 34 at the end of August and it is not lost on him why some clubs may have opted against signing him this summer. It was not dissimilar to the previous summer, when interest from English clubs did not turn into anything concrete, eventually leading to him joining Sofia in September.
After his contract expired at Elland Road on June 30 last year, Cooper was left looking for a new challenge in the EFL. Stoke City, Watford and Blackburn Rovers were credited with an interest, but none of those opportunities came through.
A move to the Bulgarian capital was not announced until September 11, a full month after the EFL programme had gotten underway. As a free agent in his early thirties looking for a contract over the past two summers, Cooper believes modern recruitment models fail to account for an important quality: experience.
“If you’re out of the game too long, it gets more difficult,” he says. “At my age, I still think I am young. I’ve got plenty of years left in me to play.
“The biggest thing nowadays, especially in the pyramid, is I don’t think clubs and recruitment teams appreciate experience as much as they used to.
“They pride themselves on a model of always needing a return on investment and that’s quite sad. During my career, I’ve always relied on the experience of the senior lads in the group.
“That only helps when you’ve got mentors who have been there and seen everything from all of their different experiences throughout the game.”
According to FBref, 600 players have been used in the Championship this season. Of those, 160 have played at least 900 minutes, which equates to 10 full matches, making them something like core squad members. Of those 160, 17 are currrently aged 31 or older.
Cooper’s family has not seen as much of him as they may have liked over the past 15 years. While very few footballers would complain about the privileged lives they lead, it’s a fact that sacrifices have to be made away from the pitch.
Cooper and wife Abbie have two children, daughter Gia, seven, and son Rui, five. Though unemployment and training alone have been tough, the one silver lining has been the chance to be a full-time dad for his children.
“That side of it, I’ve loved,” he said. “I’ve been able to do the school runs, pick the kids up, to drop them in the morning and then my day starts.
“Just waking up with them in the morning. My kids have never really had that. I commuted to Leeds for 10 years.
“They had a nice experience moving out to Bulgaria. They tried a different culture. They went to a different school over there.
“That ended for whatever reason and we’ve come back, but definitely being able to see the family and be a dad full-time, that’s been really nice. They’re getting a bit sick of me now.”
One highlight of a rare summer outside a traditional pre-season for Cooper was United’s friendly with Milan in Dublin. He and son Rui were fans for the day, flying out first thing and returning with the rest of the United fanbase on the final flight to Leeds Bradford Airport.
As he wandered around the iconic Temple Bar, Cooper was inevitably bombarded with questions, memories and picture requests from the travelling support. By his side, five-year-old Rui got to glimpse the impact his father had made on Leeds fans.
Of the footballers to have played for Leeds since the turn of the century, only Gary Kelly, David Batty and Ian Harte have totalled more than Cooper’s 284 appearances.
He also visited the team hotel in Dublin and caught up with old friends and colleagues. Maybe some of them will be colleagues again in the future.
“You do reflect then and you can be proud of yourself — you’ve left a mark on the club, on the team, on the dressing room,” he said. “I’ve still got many great friendships and relationships with people at the club and who knows? One day, maybe I can come back in some sort of capacity.
“I’ve got a lot to offer the game on the playing side and we’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.”
Cooper built a strong connection with the Leeds fanbase (George Wood/Getty Images)
Cooper’s Leeds star never shone brighter than across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons under Marcelo Bielsa. He led the club out of their 16-year Premier League exile and then to their highest top-flight finish (ninth) since 2002.
The restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic robbed the 2020 Championship title winners of their parade. Cooper was in Bulgaria when this year’s cohort got to celebrate their trophy on the city’s streets. He watched along, with delight and longing.
“I was sat in Bulgaria watching everything on X and Instagram and, honestly, it’s just the way the city came together,” he said. “It was far bigger than anybody imagined.
“The lads totally deserved that moment. They enjoyed themselves, and rightly so. Not everybody gets promotions and you’ve got to enjoy them and go all out. I would have loved that for our group, but it wasn’t meant to be and we celebrated it in our own way.
“Don’t get me wrong, we had a right good go at it. I just wish our group got to experience that also.”
Cooper had wanted to be a part of the squad that won promotion under Daniel Farke last season. With his contract expiring, he felt he still had something to offer, as Leeds sought to recover from losing against Southampton in the play-off final.
“Everything’s so fast after the devastation of the play-off final,” he said.
“Everyone takes time to get over and process what has happened and then time just keeps moving. I will always come back. I will always be in touch. I accept it for what it is, I’m not one to be the centre of attention.
“Daniel had his own ideas of what he wanted and I wasn’t part of that. That’s football, you move on and give everything in whatever happens next.”
Cooper was an unused substitute at Wembley, when Southampton ended their hopes of a Premier League return at the first time of asking. The last of his 284 Leeds appearances proved to be a cameo at the end of the play-off semi-final second-leg thrashing of Norwich City.
With Leeds 4-0 to the good and cruising to the capital, Farke replaced Ilia Gruev with Cooper in the 83rd minute. After the match, Farke maintained nothing had been decided about the captain’s future at that point.
Cooper himself was still focused on what, if any, role he may yet have to play in the play-off final. However, at the encouragement of Stuart Dallas, Patrick Bamford and Martin Sykes (United’s long-serving head of security), he walked a lap of Elland Road’s hallowed turf with his family.
It looked to everyone like a farewell after 10 years of service.
“I wasn’t going to do that,” he said. “It was only because a few of the lads (encouraged it). You don’t want to accept it when you’ve still got one of the biggest games of your career to come.
“It was an amazing win, it was an amazing night, you feed off the atmosphere in the stadium and it just felt right. It was never planned, but we went with it. I’m glad I did because you don’t get many moments like that in your career.
“We’ve gone through a lot, from the first three years to going on to what we achieved, then the relegation knocked me for six, and then to be part of a group that pushed on again. I’ve lived every aspect of football you can at the club and I look back on it with such fond memories and pure love.”
Bulgaria and Sofia followed. Cooper says the city is beautiful and he remains delighted his family had that experience, but admits the standard of facilities and infrastructure was a struggle.
Sheffield and Hillsborough is the next experience he is hoping for. After several turbulent years for the South Yorkshire club, the fans hope that going into administration can usher in a new era.
With more than 400 senior appearances in his career, Cooper hopes he has the experience to steady the ship, kickstart the club’s next phase and maybe park the padel for a few years.
