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Born on August 5th 1976 in Birmingham, Terry Cooke was a product of
the Manchester United youth system of the mid-nineties that would make
household names of players such as David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ryan
Giggs. He had scored the penalty that secured the FA Youth Cup in 1995,
had earned four England Under-21 caps, and was expected to go on to even
greater things, but after being sent out on loan to Sunderland and
Birmingham City to gain experience his progress was hampered by a
cruciate ligament injury suffered early in the 1997/98 season. On his
return a year later he was loaned out to Wrexham before Manchester City
manager Joe Royle secured his services on a three-month loan deal in
January 1999, hoping the addition of the young right-winger would help
his team to promotion from Division Two at the first attempt.
He
made his City debut in a 3-0 home win over Fulham, his first goal for
the club coming three weeks later when he netted in another 3-0 win,
this time over Millwall at Maine Road. The team had been struggling all
season to come to terms with life in the lower division, but an
improvement in form since Cooke's arrival saw the team move into the
play-off spots by mid-April with only one defeat in seventeen games.
During this period he had been particularly impressive with four goals
in as many games in wins over Reading (3-1), where he scored two, Notts
County (2-1), and Wigan Athletic (1-0), and both manager Royle and the
player became keen to make the arrangement permanent. After some
negotiation he was finally allowed to move across town in April in a £1
million deal, celebrating his signature a day later when he opened the
scoring in a 2-0 away win at Gillingham. The end of the season saw an
eventual third place finish, which got the team into the play-offs, and
after disposing of Wigan Athletic 2-1 on aggregate the stage was set for
a Wembley showdown with Gillingham for the right to go up to the First
Division. In a dramatic game that finished 2-2 after extra-time the
Blues eventually triumphed 3-1 on penalties, with Terry holding his
nerve to convert one of the vital spot-kicks. He had made a tremendous
contribution in the second half of the season, his 7 goals in 21
appearances giving the team a much-needed boost at a time when the
promotion push seemed to be in danger of grinding to a halt.
With
a new contract under his belt and the promise of first-team football
the future could not have looked any better for Terry Cooke, so what
happened in the next six months is anybody's guess. After playing in
five of the first six games of the 1999/2000 Division One season he was
dropped for a 1-0 win at Walsall (where he had made way for Ian Bishop)
as the Blues hit the top of the table. He then had to be content with a
place on the bench for the next couple of months, making only one start
in a 2-1 win at Port Vale, and it seemed that manager Royle had decided
there was only room for one winger in the team after the signing of Mark
Kennedy in the close-season. It was, however, surprising that when he
came on as a substitute in a 1-0 home loss to Huddersfield Town at the
end of November it would turn out to be his last game for the club. He
was not chosen for the first-team again and it was a frustrated Cooke
that regrettably handed in a transfer request in February - which Royle
recommended the board accept.
He was allowed to go out on loan to
Wigan Athletic in March and at the start of the 2000/2001 season spent
four months on loan at Sheffield Wednesday. He returned to Maine Road in
January 2001 and it became obvious that he was not going to get back
into the first-team picture as City had returned to the Premiership. In
March 2002 he then went on loan to Grimsby Town where he penned a
permanent deal a month later on a free transfer, and so ended his spell
with the Blues, having made 41 league and cup appearances (including 8
as a substitute) and scoring 8 goals in his time at Maine Road. Things
didn't work out for him at Blundell Park either and he was on the move
again eighteen months later when he returned to Sheffield Wednesday,
this time on a free transfer, but in May 2004 he was released and made
the decision to emigrate to the USA where he signed for Colorado Rapids. (David Redshaw)
1994–1999 Manchester United 4 (0)
1996 Sunderland (loan) 6 (0)
1996 Birmingham City (loan) 3 (0)
1998–1999 Wrexham (loan) 10 (0)
1999 Manchester City (loan) 17 (5)
1999–2002 Manchester City 20 (2)
2000 Wigan Athletic (loan) 10 (1)
2000 Sheffield Wednesday (loan) 13 (1)
2000–2001 Sheffield Wednesday (loan) 4 (0)
2002 Grimsby Town (loan) 3 (1)
2002–2003 Grimsby Town 25 (0)
2003–2004 Sheffield Wednesday 23 (2)
2005–2009 Colorado Rapids 106 (4)
2009–2010 North Queensland Fury 10 (1)
2010–2011 Gabala 12 (1)
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