Charles Cooke (born 14 October 1942) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He played as a winger for

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, before ending his career in the United States.

Club career

Cooke began his professional career with Aberdeen in 1960 and moved to Dundee in December 1964, where he was voted player of the year. He signed for Chelsea in April 1966 for a then club record of £72,000 as part of manager

Tommy Docherty Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known as The Doc, was a Scottish football player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notably Preston North End, and represented Scotland 25 times betwe ...

's restructuring of the Chelsea side. He made his debut in May 1966 during a 2–0

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European Association football, football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecess ...

win over

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

. On his league debut the following season against

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

, Cooke waltzed past

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

-winning captain

Bobby Moore Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore (12 April 1941 – 24 February 1993) was an English professional footballer. He most notably played for West Ham United, captaining the club for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England natio ...

en route to scoring the winner for Chelsea. Cooke took the place of

Bert Murray Albert George Murray (born 22 September 1942) is an English former footballer who played as a winger. He played more than 100 games in the Football League for each of his four clubs, namely Chelsea, Birmingham City, Brighton & Hove Albion and P ...

on the right wing as several players were replaced owing to a growing rift between Docherty and his players. He proved a versatile player when the post World Cup tactics limited the use of wingers and he was often played in a deeper right midfield position behind

Tommy Baldwin Thomas Baldwin (born 10 June 1945) is an English former footballer who played in The Football League for Arsenal, Chelsea, Millwall, Manchester United and Brentford. He was capped twice by England at under-23 level. It was thought that Tommy B ...

who had replaced

George Graham George Graham (born 30 November 1944), nicknamed "Stroller", is a Scottish former Association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. In his successful playing career, he made 455 appearances in England's Football ...

in a direct swap between Chelsea and Arsenal. His debut season saw Chelsea reach the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

final against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

(Cooke's cross had created

Tony Hateley Anthony Hateley (13 June 1941 – 1 February 2014) was an English professional footballer who played as a centre forward. He scored 249 goals from 499 appearances in the Football League, and played First Division football for Aston Villa, Chels ...

's winner for Chelsea in the semi-final against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

). Cooke had a shot tipped over the bar by

Pat Jennings Patrick Anthony Jennings (born 12 June 1945) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played 119 international matches for Northern Ireland in an international career which lasted for over 22 years. D ...

early on, but Chelsea generally underperformed and lost 2–1. In the early 1970s, Cooke was one of the star players in a flamboyant Chelsea side, alongside

Peter Bonetti Peter Philip Bonetti (27 September 1941 – 12 April 2020) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Chelsea, the St. Louis Stars, Dundee United and England. He was known for his safe handling, lightning reflexes an ...

Peter Osgood Peter Leslie Osgood (20 February 1947 – 1 March 2006) was an English footballer who was active during the 1960s and 1970s. He is best remembered for representing Chelsea and Southampton at club level, and was also capped four times by England ...

Alan Hudson Alan Anthony Hudson (born 21 June 1951) is an English former footballer who played for Arsenal, Chelsea, Stoke City and the Seattle Sounders as well as the England national football team. Club career Chelsea Born and brought up near the King's ...

and Ian Hutchinson. They reached another FA Cup final, against Leeds United, in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

. The first game ended 2–2 and, with Chelsea trailing 1–0 in the replay at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

with the clock running down, Cooke's run and chipped pass set up Osgood's equaliser with a diving header; Chelsea eventually won 2–1 after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

. The

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

was added in 1971 with a replayed win over

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

in Athens. Chelsea reached a third consecutive cup final in 1972, this time the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

, and though Cooke again created the equaliser for Osgood, Chelsea lost to

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

. He was sold to

shortly afterwards for £85,000 and made 44 appearances for the

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

side, but returned to Chelsea a year later. By that stage, the club were in decline and were relegated in 1974–75, though Cooke's experience proved invaluable in helping manager and ex-teammate

Eddie McCreadie Edward Graham McCreadie (born 15 April 1940) is a Scottish former footballer who played at left-back, mainly for Chelsea. He later became a football manager. Career McCreadie started his footballing career with amateur Scottish side Drumchapel b ...

's young side earn promotion again in 1976–77. In his two spells at Chelsea, Cooke made 373 appearances, scoring 30 goals. Cooke left Chelsea for the second and final time in July 1978 to play for numerous American teams, including the

Memphis Rogues The Memphis Rogues were a professional soccer team in the former North American Soccer League. They operated in the 1978, 1979, and 1980 seasons and played their home games in Memphis' Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. They also played indoor s ...

Los Angeles Aztecs The Los Angeles Aztecs was an American professional soccer team based in Los Angeles, California that existed from 1974 to 1981. The Aztecs competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1974 to 1981 as well as the 1975 NASL Indoor tour ...

and

California Surf The California Surf were an American Association football, soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (1968–1984), North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 North American Soccer League season, 1978 to 1981 North American ...

in the now-defunct NASL.

International career

He was a

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

international, winning 16 caps. He made his debut in a 4–1 win over

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

in 1965 and played his final match in 1975 against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Post-playing career

In 1980, he replaced his old Chelsea teammate, Eddie McCreadie, as the head coach of the

. After new ownership moved the team to

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, Cooke himself moved to the

where he played one last outdoor season. After this however, he continued to play in the indoor leagues, making his last appearance in the 1985–86 season for the Dallas Sidekicks. He now runs a soccer school in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. In 2006, his autobiography ''The Bonnie Prince'', written with Martin Knight, was published.

Statistics

Club

International

Honours

;Chelsea *

: 1969–70 *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

: 1970–71

References

External links

NASL/MISL stats

London Hearts Supporters' Club * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Charlie 1942 births Living people Footballers from Fife Association football wingers Scottish footballers Aberdeen F.C. players Calgary Boomers players Chelsea F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Dundee F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Los Angeles Aztecs players Memphis Rogues players California Surf players Cleveland Force (original MISL) players Dallas Sidekicks (original MISL) players Scotland international footballers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) coaches Scottish expatriate footballers Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Scotland under-23 international footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate soccer players in Canada Scottish football managers People from St Monans FA Cup Final players