| Although a sizeable majority of his long club career was spent at Middlesbrough, it was as a Nottingham Forest player that utility defender Colin Cooper caught the attention of England coach Terry Venables, who was looking for potential squad fillers for the 1996 European Championships for which, as hosts, England didn't need to qualify. Cooper had excelled in the centre of the Forest defence during their return to top flight football in the 1994/95 season and was rewarded when he joined a number of untried Premiership defenders - John Scales, David Unsworth and Warren Barton were the others - for cameo turns in the Umbro tournament in May '95. Colin didn't disgrace himself as he debuted alongside Gary Pallister in an eventful 3-3 draw against Sweden at Elland Road (in which England scored twice in the last two minutes to level up) before earning his second cap alongside Scales in a 3-1 Wembley reversal against Brazil. That game (see photo above) saw Colin up against an exciting teenage striker by the name of Ronaldo who scored the first of what proved to be many international goals to put the Brazilians 2-1 ahead after a brilliant free kick by Juninho (who was to join Middlesbrough later that year) cancelled out Graeme Le Saux's equally spectacular opener. Ultimately, none of the experimental charges would feature in Venables' plans again, and Cooper went back to the club fold, serving Forest impressively for a further three years before returning to his roots with Middlesbrough in August 1998. (Matthew Rudd) |