It's easy to forget Leeds United icon passed through Huddersfield Town: View | OneFootball

It's easy to forget Leeds United icon passed through Huddersfield Town: View | OneFootball

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Football League World

·16 September 2024

It's easy to forget Leeds United icon passed through Huddersfield Town: View

Article image:It's easy to forget Leeds United icon passed through Huddersfield Town: View

Liam Cooper spent the first half of the 2011/12 season with the Terriers on loan.

Huddersfield Town and Leeds United have a long, drawn-out history with one another, that goes all the way back to 1924.


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The Terriers dominated the early years of the rivalry, but in recent times it has been Leeds who have taken hold of the advantage.

Throughout these games, there have been countless players to have been involved on either side of the rivalry; Frank Worthington, Roy Weston and Trevor Cherry are perhaps three of the most well known, however, supporters may have forgotten that a modern-day Whites icon donned the blue-and-white stripes of Huddersfield.

Liam Cooper is usually associated with Elland Road, but, he did spend a small part of his career 16 miles away at the John Smith's Stadium.

Now playing his football in Bulgaria for CSKA Sofia, it was a move that is perhaps one of the least notable in the history of the EFL for a player that went on to have such an impact in the leagues.

Liam Cooper's time at Huddersfield Town was extremely short

Having started his career at Hull City, the 33-year-old has played just one full season outside of Yorkshire until now.

Following his Premier League debut for the Tigers in the 2009/10 campaign, Cooper was sent out on loan to Carlisle United in League One for the second half of the 2010/11 season, but he made just six appearances in the division in Cumbria.

Nevertheless, he was given a second opportunity to play in the third tier only a few months later, joining Huddersfield in July 2011 on a season-long loan.

It looked as though the then 19-year-old would be given his first full crack at professional football, after playing just 13 senior matches before the loan switch. Yet, once again, it was a move that never lived out to be what he had hoped it would have been.

Article image:It's easy to forget Leeds United icon passed through Huddersfield Town: View

Cooper made his debut for the Terriers in the League Cup, playing the full 90 minutes in a 4-2 away win against Port Vale, but it would take another three weeks for the defender to make his second appearance for the club, this time in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

What had looked to be an exciting challenge for the youngster, was starting to prove an extremely difficult one, and when he eventually did make his league debut for Huddersfield, it came in the form of a short five-minute cameo at home to Leyton Orient - in what was the Terriers' 10th league match of the season already.

Cooper made just three more appearances in League One for the Terriers, starting in all of them, yet, besides another appearance in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy - his time at the John Smith's Stadium came to an abrupt end in December 2011, with the then 20-year-old requesting for his loan to be cut short.

Liam Cooper eventually proved his ability with Chesterfield and then became a Leeds United hero

After failing to make an impact in the first-team at Hull, Cooper was signed by Chesterfield following a successful two-month loan towards the end of 2012.

In his year-and-a-half with the Spireites, the defender made 80 appearances, and earned himself a move to the Championship with Leeds.

It was at Elland Road where he proved how good he truly is, playing 284 times for the Yorkshire club, captaining his team to promotion to the Premier League in 2020.

Although his involvement in the starting XI became more limited in his last couple of years at the club, the impact he had can never be denied.

Article image:It's easy to forget Leeds United icon passed through Huddersfield Town: View

Cooper will always be associated with Leeds, and his short spell at rivals Huddersfield is potentially one that will eventually be lost to the history books.

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