Terence John Cooke (born 5 August 1976) is an English former 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 ...

and youth team coach of the

Denver Kickers Denver Kickers are an American soccer club, founded in 1956. The club fields a number of teams at the adult and youth levels. The Kickers premier team plays in the United States Adult Soccer Association sanctioned Colorado Adult Soccer Associati ...

. As a player he was 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 ...

from 1994 to 2011. Born in Marston Green, he began his career with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, but struggled to break into the first team and had loan spells with

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

and

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

before moving to United's local rivals

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in 1999. He also failed to make an impact at City and again went on loan to

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

and Grimsby Town. The loan to Grimsby became permanent in 2002, but he only remained there for a year before rejoining Sheffield Wednesday for a season. In 2005, Cooke's career took him out of England for the first time as he joined

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

's Colorado Rapids. In four years with the team, he made more than 100 appearances, but he was deemed to be surplus to requirements at the end of the

2009 MLS season The 2009 Major League Soccer season was the 14th season of Major League Soccer. The season began on March 19 and ended with MLS Cup 2009 on November 22 at Qwest Field in Seattle. Expansion team Seattle Sounders FC debuted as the league's 1 ...

and released from his contract. As a free agent, he was picked up by Australian side

North Queensland Fury Northern Fury Football Club was an Australian professional soccer club based in Townsville, Queensland. The club was founded in 2008 and competed in the A-League under the name North Queensland Fury. On 1 March 2011, the club was removed from t ...

, and 2010–2011 he played for Gabala of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. Cooke also made four appearances for the England under-21 side.

Club career

Manchester United

Cooke grew up as a Birmingham City supporter, and came up through the youth system of

and scored the penalty that clinched the FA Youth Cup in 1995, but only appeared in eight first team matches with the club. He made his debut in a

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

match against

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

in September 1995, and provided the cross for a

Ryan Giggs Ryan Joseph Giggs (né Wilson; 29 November 1973) is a Welsh association football, football coach and former player. Regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Giggs played his List of one-club men in association football, entir ...

goal, and found himself being tipped for a bright future. He then scored in the second leg of United's League Cup aggregate defeat to York City at Bootham Crescent in early October. However, he only played six more games for the club, his first team opportunities severely limited by the excellence of fellow youngster David Beckham in Cooke's favoured position on the right-hand side of midfield. During his time with Manchester United, he was loaned out to

and

Manchester City

Following his loan spell at Maine Road, Manchester City subsequently bought him for £600,000, potentially rising to £1 million in April 1999. Cooke was part of the City side that earned promotion from Division Two in the 1998–99 season, but lost his place in the team the following season, when City won a second successive promotion to reach the Premier League. While at City, he was loaned out to

(where he scored once against QPR) and Grimsby Town.

Grimsby Town

Grimsby manager Paul Groves managed to make Cooke's switch to

Blundell Park Blundell Park is a football ground in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England and home to Grimsby Town Football Club. The stadium was built in 1899, but only one of the original stands remains. The current capacity of the ground is 9, ...

a permanent one, following his release from Manchester City at the end of the 2001–2002 season. While on loan, Cooke scored once, against Norwich in three appearances and did enough to earn himself a full-time position at the club. Cooke was a reasonable success with The Mariners, though his time with the club was overshadowed by an eventual off-field feud with his manager. Also the signing of former Grimsby hero

John Oster John Morgan Oster (born 8 December 1978) is a football coach and former professional player who played as a midfielder. Oster was a product of the youth team at Grimsby Town where he was added to the first team squad in 1994, however he didn't ...

from

on loan had caused Cooke to lose his place in the team, as Oster successfully made the spot on the right wing his, despite the fact Cooke's overall performances beforehand made him one of the more impressive players in a struggling team. After making his move permanent he scored once, his strike coming against Burnley in the FA Cup. Cooke often found himself left out on the substitutes' bench, or not included in the 16-man selection at all, this despite vocal protests from supporters during the games. Grimsby were eventually relegated from the First Division, and at the end of the 2002–03 season, Cooke was amongst the number of players who left the club.

Sheffield Wednesday

It was Grimsby's relegation rivals

who would benefit from Cooke's departure from Blundell Park. He signed a one-year deal with the club. After playing out the 2003–04 campaign, at the end of which the Owls avoided relegation, Cooke departed the club and emigrated to the United States.

Colorado Rapids

In 2005, Cooke signed with Colorado Rapids, and scored two goals and had two assists during his first MLS season. On 1 April 2008, the Rapids beat

David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending fr ...

's Los Angeles Galaxy 4–0. Cooke captained the team in what was their first game of the season, scored a goal and provided two assists, and was voted MLS Player of the Week. Cooke was waived by Colorado at the end of July 2009 to make room for the signing of Jamie Smith from

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 ...

. Remaining in the US, he was invited to trial with

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

that August. Cooke trained with

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 ...

to regain his fitness, and played in a reserve match against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

, but manager Billy Davies did not offer him a contract.

North Queensland Fury

Cooke arrived in Townsville to trial with

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

franchise

as a possible replacement for injured fellow Englishman James Robinson. He was signed by Ian Ferguson on 25 November and made his debut against Adelaide United on 28 November. He scored his first goal for the Fury on 13 February against

Gold Coast United Gold Coast United Football Club is an Australian soccer club based in Gold Coast, Queensland. The earliest incarnation of the club formed in 1966 and its home ground was at Nikiforides Family Park in Broadbeach. The first era of Gold Coast Unit ...

, scoring the game-winner in the 83rd minute of a 2–1 victory. After his short-term deal expired Cooke left the Fury as the club fell into administration.

Gabala

Cooke then joined Gabala of

, managed by Tony Adams. After making 12 appearances in which he scored one goal, Cooke then suffered a serious knee injury which kept him out for the remainder of the season, at the end of which he was released by the club.

International career

Cooke represented England at U16, U18 and U21 levels, but was never capped by the full senior side.

Coaching career

Cooke is now employed as the Director of Coaching for the

Honours

Manchester United *

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

: 1994–95 Manchester City *

Football League Second Division play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise tw ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Individual *

Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year Manchester United Football Club Under-21s is the most senior of Manchester United F.C., Manchester United's youth teams and the club's former reserve team. They play in the Premier League 2, the highest tier of the Professional Development Leag ...

: 1994–95

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Terry 1976 births Living people People from Marston Green Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull English men's footballers Manchester United F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Colorado Rapids players Northern Fury FC players Gabala SC players England men's under-21 international footballers English expatriate men's footballers Premier League players A-League Men players English Football League players Major League Soccer players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Expatriate men's footballers in Azerbaijan Men's association football midfielders English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in Australia English expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan