Mitch Cooper

Mitch Cooper
Personnel
Surname	Mitch Steven Baggio Cooper
birthday	September 18, 1994
place of birth	Vanuatu
position	attacking midfield
Juniors
Years	station
	Maroochydore Swans
	Sunshine Coast FC
	Queensland Academy of Sport
2010–2012	Gold Coast United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2012	Gold Coast United	6 (1)
2012–	Newcastle United Jets	9 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
	Australia U17
1 Only league games are given. As of January 20, 2015

Mitch Steven Baggio Cooper (born September 18, 1994 in Vanuatu ) is an Australian football player .

Career

Cooper was born in Vanuatu and moved to New Zealand with his family at the age of eight . Another move to Australia to the Sunshine Coast followed four years later . After Cooper already in New Zealand at the Wynton Rufer Football Academy in Auckland had played football, he was active in the Maroochydore Swans in Australia at youth level for two years, then at Sunshine Coast before at the Queensland Academy of Sport in Brisbane was funded sporty . In 2010 he was accepted into the youth team of the A-League club Gold Coast United and won the championship in the National Youth League with the team in 2011 .

Cooper's A-League debut on February 17, 2012 was preceded by an unusual controversy between club owner Clive Palmer and coach Miron Bleiberg . In the absence of the actual team captain Michael Thwaite , Palmer had announced that the 17-year-old Cooper would wear the armband on his debut. When Bleiberg stated in an interview a little later that this was only a symbolic act for choosing a seat, Palmer saw it as a disparagement towards the club and players and unceremoniously suspended the coach for the game. Interim youth and assistant coach Mike Mulvey sat in the dugout when Cooper became the youngest captain in league history in the 1-0 away loss to Melbourne Heart . Shortly after the game, Bleiberg announced his resignation, Palmer was revoked a little later because of various antics and violations, and the team ended the season under the leadership of the Australian Association before it was dissolved at the end of the season. Cooper managed meanwhile in his second of a total of six league appearances for Gold Coast, a 3-3 draw against the leaders Central Coast Mariners , his first goal in the professional field.

Cooper, who had actually signed a professional contract with Gold Coast United for the following season, instead signed a two-year deal with Newcastle United Jets , which signed two more Gold Coast United players, James Brown and Joshua Brillante . The up-and-coming talent had inquiries from several league competitors. According to Cooper, the decision in favor of the Jets was given by the coach Gary van Egmond , with whom he had already made the acquaintance of the U-17 national team.

His time at Newcastle has since been overshadowed by injuries. At the beginning of his stay he suffered from an ankle injury, after being on the squad several times towards the end of the season, he tore his cruciate ligament in his right knee in March 2013 , and suffered in January 2014, only shortly after he returned to the youth team She had a cruciate ligament rupture in my left knee and was out again for months. At the end of 2013, Cooper also had to stand trial after he was stopped by the police behind the wheel of a vehicle in October, even though he was not allowed to drive because of too many points due to road traffic violations. He escaped conviction and was only given a nine-month good behavior bond . Cooper, who can act both centrally and externally in attacking midfield, finally made his comeback in the A-League in December 2014, his first appearance in 21 months.

In 2011, Cooper took part in the U-17 World Cup in Mexico with the Australian U-17 selection and was in the starting line-up in all four tournament games when they reached the round of 16.

Web links

• Mitch Cooper in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ sunshinecoastdaily.com.au: Cooper going to U17 Cup (June 6, 2011)
2. ↑ sunshinecoastdaily.com.au: Miron in the dark (Feb. 17, 2012)
3. ↑ smh.com.au: Mini Cooper given keys to captaincy (16. Feb. 2012)
4. ↑ dailytelegraph.com.au: Clive Palmer bans Gold Coast coach Miron Bleiberg from clash with Melbourne Heart (Feb. 16, 2012)
5. ↑ foxsports.com.au: Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg quits in wake of Clive Palmer A-League scandal (Feb. 19, 2012)
6. ↑ sunshinecoastdaily.com.au: Cooper tipped for stardom (11 Aug 2011)
7. ↑ sunshinecoastdaily.com.au: Van is Mitch's man (May 26, 2012)
8. ↑ sunshinecoastdaily.com.au: Grounded Jet Cooper might move (May 17, 2013)
9. ↑ sunshinecoastdaily.com.au: Cooper determined to beat another season-ending injury (Jan. 28, 2014)
10. ↑ theherald.com.au: Mitch Cooper on good behavior bond (Dec. 5, 2013)
11. ↑ ffa.sportalhosting.com: JETS INSIDER - Mitch Cooper (July 7, 2013) ( Memento of the original from January 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.