Kevin Cooper

Cooper began his career as a trainee at his hometown club Derby County but managed only five first team appearances for the club in total. His league debut came on 7 May 1995, as a substitute in a 2–1 defeat at Watford. In the spring of 1997, he found an opportunity for first team football when he was taken on loan at First Division Stockport County. The midfielder joined the Edgeley Park club permanently that summer for £150,000 and went on to make 173 appearances in total over almost four seasons. He eventually moved to Wimbledon in March 2001 for £800,000. He stayed a year with the Dons, notching his best seasonal goal tally of 10 during the 2001–02 season. (Cooper is not to be confused with striker Kevin Cooper, who scored 90 goals for AFC Wimbledon from 2002 to 2004 and was their highest scorer over two seasons). However, he ended the season by being signed by his former Stockport manager Dave Jones, now at Wolverhampton Wanderers, for £1 million in March 2002. His commitment and skill playing for Wimbledon FC won him the fans' player of the year award, which he was presented with on the pitch at Molineux playing for his new team. He joined Wolves primarily to replace the then-injured Mark Kennedy, and played the remainder of the 2001–02 season as Wolves, who had been challenging for automatic promotion for most of the season, finished in the play-offs. Wolves eventually lost to Norwich City, despite Cooper scoring a spectacular long range goal in the second leg. He…

After leaving Neath, Cooper relocated to Malaysia to manage Cardiff's 1MCC – One Malaysia Cardiff City – which is linked to the Far Eastern ownership of Cardiff City. Ahead of the start of the 2012–13 season, Cooper returned to Cardiff City as the head coach of the club's under-21 side. In 2014 Kevin Cooper was appointed as the manager of Swiss second-tier side Servette Geneva. Although he guided the team to second place in the Swiss Challenge League, the team was relegated to the third tier of Swiss football for 2015-16 for financial reasons. On 4 November 2015, fellow Challenge League side FC Wil announced that they signed Cooper on a contract that would keep him at the club until 2017. On 18 January 2017, joined Hartlepool United. On 24 April 2017, left Hartlepool United.

In 2019, returned to Malaysia and was appointed as technical director and Head Coach at Armed Forces, now playing in the second tier of Malaysian Football.

Kevin Cooper is the father of the Welsh footballer Oli Cooper.

Norwich City Football League First Division: 2003–04