Joel Cooper (footballer)

Joel William Cooper (born 29 February 1996) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Linfield in the NIFL Premiership, on loan from Oxford United.

Joel Cooper
Personal information
Full name Joel William Cooper[1]
Date of birth (1996-02-29) 29 February 1996
Place of birth Ballyclare, Northern Ireland
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[2]
Position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Linfield
(on loan from Oxford United)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015–2018 Glenavon 80 (13)
2018–2020 Linfield 62 (18)
2020– Oxford United 4 (0)
2021– → Linfield (loan) 0 (0)
National team‡
2015–2017 Northern Ireland U21 5 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15:20, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 19:52, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

Club career

Early career

Cooper started his career at Glenavon. In his first season at the club, he helped them reach the Irish Cup final at Windsor Park on 7 May 2016. Cooper started the match as Glenvaon defeated favourites Linfield 2–0.[3] At the end of the 2015–16 season, Cooper was named the Northern Ireland Young Player of the Year.[4]

In 2018, he moved to Linfield, with whom he won consecutive NIFL Premiership titles in 2018–19 and 2019–20.[5] In his second season with Linfield, Cooper scored 11 league goals and provided a further 17 assists.[5] On 18 October 2020, Cooper was named as the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association Player of the Year for the 2019–20 season, succeeding teammate Jimmy Callacher who won the award in 2018–19.[4][6] In winning the award, Cooper joined an elite band of players who have won both the young player and senior award, including Gavin Whyte, Stuart Dallas, Liam Boyce, Michael Gault, Noel Bailie and Mark Glendinning.[6]

Oxford United

On 23 July 2020, Cooper earned a move to Oxford United in League One for an undisclosed fee.[7] He signed a three-year deal.[8][5] Cooper became the third player from an Irish league side to join Oxford, following in the footsteps of Gavin Whyte and Mark Sykes.[5] Cooper made his Oxford debut as a second-half substitute in a 0–2 loss to Lincoln City in the first match of the 2020–21 EFL League One season on 12 September 2020.[9] He made his full debut for Oxford three days later in an EFL Cup match against Watford, providing the assist for Robert Hall's goal but the U's would fall in a penalty shoot-out after the match finished 1–1.[10]

In December 2020, it was announced that he would return to Linfield on loan for the remainder of the 2020–21 season.[11] U's manager Karl Robinson had revealed earlier in the month that Cooper had returned home in November to deal with ongoing personal issues and that he hoped to have Cooper back in the summer.[12]

International career

In August 2020, Cooper was called up by manager Ian Baraclough to join the Northern Ireland squad for UEFA Nations League matches against Romania and Norway in September.[8][13][14]

Career statistics

Club
As of match played 10 November 2020.[15]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Glenavon 2015–16 NIFL Premiership 3164100–357
2016–17 NIFL Premiership 34532103[lower-alpha 1]0417
2017–18 NIFL Premiership 1522000–172
Total 80139310309316
Linfield 2018–19 NIFL Premiership 3371020–367
2019–20 NIFL Premiership 291100325[lower-alpha 2]23715
Total 62181052527322
Oxford United 2020–21 League One 4010101[lower-alpha 3]070
Linfield (loan) 2020–21 NIFL Premiership 000000–00
Career total 14631113729217338
  1. One appearance in the NIFL Charity Shield and two appearances in the UEFA Europa League
  2. Appearances in the UEFA Europa League
  3. Appearance in the EFL Trophy

Honours

Club

Glenavon

Linfield

Individual

References
  1. "Notification of shirt numbers: Oxford United" (PDF). English Football League. p. 51. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  2. "Joel Cooper". Soccerway. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  3. "Irish Cup final 2016: Glenavon beat Linfield 2-0". BBC. 7 May 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  4. "Joel Cooper Wins Northern Ireland Player Of the Year". Oxford United. 18 October 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  5. "Joel Cooper: Linfield winger agrees three-year deal with Oxford United". BBC. 23 July 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  6. "Northern Ireland Football Awards: Joel Cooper picks up Player of Year award". BBC. 18 October 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  7. "Joel Cooper To Sign For Oxford United". Oxford United F.C. 23 July 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  8. "Oxford United new boy Joel Cooper handed instant chance to impress with Northern Ireland". Belfast Live. 24 August 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  9. "Goals from Anthony Scully and Adam Jackson saw new-look Lincoln claim a win over Oxford". BBC. 12 September 2020.
  10. "Watford knocked Oxford United out of the Carabao Cup on penalties after scoring late to force the shootout". BBC. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  11. "Joel Cooper Rejoins Linfield". Oxford United F.C. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  12. "Oxford United reveal reason for Joel Cooper's absence". Oxford Mail. 2 December 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  13. "Ian Baraclough names squad for UEFA Nations League games against Romania and Norway". Irish Football Association. 24 August 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  14. "Daniel Ballard called up to Northern Ireland senior men's squad". 27 August 2020.
  15. "Joel Cooper". Soccerway. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  16. "Charity Shield: Ten-man Glenavon defeat Crusaders". BBC. 30 July 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.