NEALE COOPER, the former Aberdeen footballer who became a legend at his hometown club, died yesterday from injuries sustained from a fall at the weekend. He was aged 54.
Tributes poured in from all over Scotland for a genuinely popular personality, a cult hero of the Scottish Premier League, who was well known for being approachable and funny in person, which was in stark contrast to his image as a midfield enforcer with no room for taking prisoners.
Cooper was infamously booked six seconds into game for a foul on Celtic’s Charlie Nicholas. “I got there as quickly as I could,” was his sincere explanation some years later.
He is the first of Aberdeen’s iconic 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup winning team, the Gothenburg Greats which were managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, to pass away.
They are only the third Scottish team to win a European trophy and remain the last team to defeat Real Madrid in a European final.
After the club knocked Bayern Munich out of the cup en route, he said: “He (Franz Beckenbauer) said I was possibly the closest he had seen to a player like himself at that age. That was quite a compliment.
“But I always say that it goes to show, even Franz Beckenbauer can talk some amount of s****.”
Cooper was found in the stairwell of flats in the Bucksburn area of Aberdeen in the early hours of Sunday morning.
He was taken to the city’s Aberdeen Royal Infirmary but his death was confirmed yesterday evening. His family were at his bedside.
Last year he suffered a heart attack and underwent a successful operation to fit a stent.
Police are urging a male taxi driver, who picked him up on Union Street along with another man and two women, to come forward. The group were dropped off at the city’s Ferguson Court after getting into the taxi around 12.30am.
Detective Inspector David Howieson 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.
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“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.”
Cooper, known to all as Tattie, was a key member of the Aberdeen side of the early 1980s which, under the command of Ferguson, changed the landscape of Scottish football when they and Dundee United, nicknamed New Firm, broke up the monopoly of Celtic and Rangers.
In his five years at Pittodrie, he was a fan of the club as well as a hero on the park, Cooper got a winners medal in Gothenburg, which was followed up by victory in the Super Cup over Hamburg who were European champions.
He won two Premier League titles, the Scottish Cup four times and a League Cup with Aberdeen, all before his 23rd birthday.
Ferguson once described Cooper, who could test the patience of his old manager, as one of the bravest players he had ever managed, and had so much trust in him that he handed him his debut at just 16.
Cooper moved to Aston Villa but injury restricted his appearances during a frustrating two-year spell in England. He moved to Rangers for a short spell, scoring on his return to Aberdeen, and then played for Reading, Dunfermline Athletic and Ross County who he went on to enjoy a long association with.
He managed the Dingwall club between 1996 and 2005 and led them to two promotion. They also came close to knocking Rangers out of the Scottish Cup in 2003. He returned to County as first team coach in 2012 and stayed for two seasons.
However, it is at Aberdeen where his passing will be most felt as he truly was one of their own. Aberdeen, on their website, said: “The club is deeply shocked and saddened to hear that our legendary midfielder and Gothenburg Great, Neale Cooper has tragically passed away.”
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