Oliver Joseph Cooper (born 14 December 1999) is a professional

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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

and the Wales national team.

Career

Swansea City

Cooper joined the

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

youth academy at under 12 level and signed his first professional contract with the club in February 2019. Cooper made his professional debut with

in a 2-0

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 ...

win over

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

on 9 January 2021. He scored his first goal for

on 23 January 2021 in a 5–1 win over

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

in the FA Cup fourth round.

Newport County (loan)

On 31 August 2021, Cooper joined

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side Newport County on a season-long loan deal, with the option of him returning to his parent club in January 2022. He made his debut for Newport the same day in the starting line-up for the 2–0 win against Plymouth Argyle in the EFL Trophy. Cooper scored his first goal for Newport on 2 October 2021 in the 3-0 League Two win against Scunthorpe United.

International

Oli Cooper is a former Wales Under-21 international. In November 2022 Cooper and Jordan James were named as travelling back-up players to the senior

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 ...

squad for the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wo ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. Cooper made his senior Wales debut on 28 March 2023 as a second half substitute for

Aaron Ramsey Aaron James Ramsey (born 26 December 1990) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Nice and the Wales national team. Ramsey mainly plays as a box-to-box midfielder, but has also been deployed on the left ...

in the Euro 2024 qualifying 1-0 win against Latvia.

Personal life

Oli Cooper is the son of the retired footballer, coach and manager Kevin Cooper.

Career statistics

References

External links

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Swansea City Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Oliver 1999 births Living people Welsh people of English descent Welsh men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Swansea City A.F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players English Football League players Wales men's youth international footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers Wales men's international footballers