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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult,\u201d Cooper tells The Athletic. \u201cIf you speak to anybody in my situation, they\u2019ll tell you the same. You know you\u2019ve got to do it. It\u2019s part of our lives. Psychologically, as well, it keeps you fresh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worry does start to set in. Is that call from a club going to come? There\u2019s the network you have around you as well. I\u2019ve got an amazing wife, kids, and family and friends around me, which keep me on the straight and narrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou miss that competitive edge, that needing to go and win. The padel\u2019s helping with that, but it\u2019s nothing like getting three points on a Saturday afternoon after a full week\u2019s training.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a> the crisis-hit Championship club are hoping to sign.<\/p>\n \n Liam Cooper holds off a challenge from France\u2019s Kylian Mbappe while playing for Scotland (Franck Fife\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n 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\u2019s reign mean the club is banned from registering new players.<\/p>\n Being forced into administration and a recent influx of cash from supporter spending have helped raise hopes of the transfer restrictions being relaxed<\/a>. Cooper corroborates Pedersen\u2019s interest and is still waiting on the green light.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re out of the game too long, it gets more difficult,\u201d he says. \u201cAt my age, I still think I am young. I\u2019ve got plenty of years left in me to play.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest thing nowadays, especially in the pyramid, is I don\u2019t think clubs and recruitment teams appreciate experience as much as they used to.<\/p>\n \u201cThey pride themselves on a model of always needing a return on investment and that\u2019s quite sad. During my career, I\u2019ve always relied on the experience of the senior lads in the group.<\/p>\n \u201cThat only helps when you\u2019ve got mentors who have been there and seen everything from all of their different experiences throughout the game.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Cooper\u2019s 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\u2019s a fact that sacrifices have to be made away from the pitch.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThat side of it, I\u2019ve loved,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been able to do the school runs, pick the kids up, to drop them in the morning and then my day starts.<\/p>\n \u201cJust waking up with them in the morning. My kids have never really had that. I commuted to Leeds for 10 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had a nice experience moving out to Bulgaria. They tried a different culture. They went to a different school over there.<\/p>\n \u201cThat ended for whatever reason and we\u2019ve come back, but definitely being able to see the family and be a dad full-time, that\u2019s been really nice. They\u2019re getting a bit sick of me now.\u201d<\/p>\n One highlight of a rare summer outside a traditional pre-season for Cooper was United\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 284 appearances.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cYou do reflect then and you can be proud of yourself \u2014 you\u2019ve left a mark on the club, on the team, on the dressing room,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot to offer the game on the playing side and we\u2019ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Cooper built a strong connection with the Leeds fanbase (George Wood\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Cooper\u2019s Leeds star never shone brighter than across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons under Marcelo Bielsa<\/a>. He led the club out of their 16-year Premier League exile and then to their highest top-flight finish (ninth) since 2002.<\/p>\n The restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic robbed the 2020 Championship title winners of their parade. Cooper was in Bulgaria when this year\u2019s cohort got to celebrate their trophy on the city\u2019s streets. He watched along, with delight and longing.<\/p>\n \u201cI was sat in Bulgaria watching everything on X and Instagram and, honestly, it\u2019s just the way the city came together,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was far bigger than anybody imagined.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lads totally deserved that moment. They enjoyed themselves, and rightly so. Not everybody gets promotions and you\u2019ve got to enjoy them and go all out. I would have loved that for our group, but it wasn\u2019t meant to be and we celebrated it in our own way<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, we had a right good go at it. I just wish our group got to experience that also.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1730502103-scaled.jpg\")
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