Wilf Copping

Wilf Copping
Personnel
Surname	Wilfred Copping
birthday	17th August 1909
place of birth	Barnsley ,  England
date of death	June 1980
Place of death	Southend-on-Sea ,  England
position	External runner (left), central runner
Juniors
Years	station
	Deame Valley Old Boys
	Middlecliffe & Darfield Rovers
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1930-1934	Leeds United	159 (4)
1934-1939	Arsenal FC	166 (0)
1939-1942	Leeds United	15 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1933-1939	England	20 (0)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1946-1947	K.Beerschot VAC
1 Only league games are given.

Wilfred "Wilf" Copping (born August 17, 1909 in Barnsley , † June 1980 in Southend-on-Sea ) was an English football player . Between 1933 and 1939 he completed a total of 20 international matches for the English national football team .

Athletic career

Copping, also known as The Iron Man because of his combat strength , was born in Yorkshire in August 1909 and attended Houghton Council School . After the trained left defender had failed in the half position in the trial training at the then second division club Barnsley , he then joined the first division club Leeds United in March 1929 . In the meantime he had played with the Dearne Valley Old Boys and the Middlecliffe Rovers .

In the first year Copping could not yet prevail at Leeds United. When the previous left wing runner George Reed then injured his knee in the 1930/31 season, Copping was built into the runner row with Willis Edwards and Ernie Hart by coach Dick Ray . Coppings debut was the first game of the season against Portsmouth FC , which ended 2-2. Although Copping never missed a championship game this season, it ended in disappointment as Leeds were relegated from the first division. After the direct resurgence in the following year, another season as a first division regular player and a good eighth place followed. It was during this time that Coppings first played for the English national team, when Copping played 1-1 with England against Italy . This was followed by more inserts in the English selection and another season in Leeds, which should be his last there.

Herbert Chapman , then coach of Arsenal FC , was looking for a replacement for the aging Bob John and persistently campaigned for Coppings to move to London . In January 1934, Chapman passed away and his successor, George Allison , completed the transfer in June of that year with a payment of £ 8,000. Copping won the championship straight away with Arsenal, which was secured 2-0 in the penultimate game against Everton FC . This encounter ended Copping injured and playing in great pain. Another highlight of the season was the international match against world champions Italy, known as the Battle of Highbury , which England won 3-2.

In the 1935/36 season, Copping won the FA Cup for the first time with Arsenal after beating Sheffield United in the final and the second English championship two years later.

Due to the looming Second World War , Copping then left Arsenal FC to enable his family to return to Yorkshire before he put himself into the service of the Army . When he was then at the end of the 1938/39 season in twelve games by Leeds United used, he was a soldier after the outbreak of war and fought as a company sergeant major in North Africa . During the first three years of the war he played in 24 games in the Wartime League for Leeds before he ended his football career in 1942.

After the end of the war, he initially looked after a team in the 11th Army in Düsseldorf in 1945 and was then a coach in Beerschot, Belgium . In his home country he was still at Southend United , Bristol City and until 1959 at Coventry City to the coaching staff.

He then retired in Southend-on-Sea and died in 1980 at the age of 70.

successes

• English champion: 1935, 1938
• FA Cup winner: 1936
• Charity Shield winner: 1938

literature

• Michael Joyce: Football League Players' Records. 1888 to 1939. (p. 60) , 4Edge, Hockley, Essex 2004 ISBN 1-89946-867-6

Web links

• Profile at Arsenal FC