I led Leeds United to the Championship title and dream of returning as sporting director
A fairytale Leeds United return has not been ruled out by a former captain.
Liam Cooper only left Leeds United last summer but is already dreaming of a return to Elland Road - albeit this time in the boardroom.
Cooper spent just short of 10 years at Elland Road, joining from Chesterfield in 2014 before cementing himself as a modern-day club legend. The battling defender led Leeds to the 2019/20 Championship title under Marcelo Bielsa, continuing his role as club captain throughout three seasons in the Premier League and a return to the Championship - albeit with on-pitch minutes reduced.
The 33-year-old’s Leeds contract expired last summer and after failing to reach an extension agreement, with the expectation being he’d join a Championship rival, he made the surprise decision to join Bulgarian outfit CSKA Sofia. But that might not be the end of Cooper at Elland Road, at least that’s what the Whites legend hopes.
Cooper’s Leeds dream
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Mail, Cooper revealed: “I’ve started a Masters degree and my ultimate dream is to be the sporting director at Leeds.”
There will be some way to go before Cooper’s prospective boardroom return, with the defender not yet halfway through the two-year contract he signed at CSKA Sofia last summer. It’s been a stop-start debut campaign for the Scotland international so far, with injury issues allowing him just 11 league appearances.
Cooper hasn’t played since December 7 and will likely miss out on Sunday when CSKA face Levski Sofia in one of European football’s most fierce derbies. The former Leeds captain is no stranger to fervent atmospheres but admits he was taken aback by scenes inside Bulgarian stadiums, with flares and fireworks commonplace.
“Before my debut, I went to watch CSKA play Lokomotiv and sat with the sporting director,” he added. “The fireworks, the pyrotechnics, when they catch you off guard, they make you jump out of your skin. I don’t think you’d get them past the stewards back home! Sometimes the game has to be stopped because the smoke gets that overwhelming, it starts affecting the VAR.
“The Levski derby means so much to people — more important than winning the league probably. If a taxi driver supports Levski, they won’t talk to me. If it’s a CSKA fan, they want to know everything about you. It’s inspiring.”
A modern-day Leeds legend
Cooper remains a much-loved figure at Elland Road, having guided Leeds to a long-awaited Premier League return under Bielsa. The centre-back was virtually ever-present in that promotion-winning campaign and continued to start regularly as the Whites finished ninth in their first top-flight season since 2003/04.
Minutes dwindled as Pascal Struijk started to come through and cement his place as first-choice left-sided centre-back, with the likes of Robin Koch, Diego Llorente and Max Wober also preferred for large parts. And that was the same following relegation, with Dutchman Struijk partnering Joe Rodon.
Cooper started just eight league games last season, even with Struijk out for the second-half of the campaign, as manager Daniel Farke turned to Ethan Ampadu ahead of his club captain - Ampadu would eventually take the armband as well. A move away last summer was expected and after settling in Bulgaria, the defender returned to Elland Road during the New Year’s Day 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers, where he received a send-off deserving off his efforts.