Joel Cooper

Joel William Cooper (born 29 February 1996) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Oxford United.

Club Career

Early career

Cooper started his career at Glenavon. In his first season at the club, he helped them reach the Irish Cup final at Windsor Park on 7 May 2016. Cooper started the match as Glenvaon defeated favourites Linfield 2–0. At the end of the 2015–16 season, Cooper was named the Northern Ireland Young Player of the Year.

In 2018, he moved to Linfield, with whom he won consecutive NIFL Premiership titles in 2018–19 and 2019–20. In his second season with Linfield, Cooper scored 11 league goals and provided a further 17 assists. On 18 October 2020, Cooper was named as the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association Player of the Year for the 2019–20 season, succeeding teammate Jimmy Callacher who won the award in 2018–19. In winning the award, Cooper joined an elite band of players who have won both the young player and senior award, including Gavin Whyte, Stuart Dallas, Liam Boyce, Michael Gault, Noel Bailie and Mark Glendinning.

Oxford United

On 23 July 2020, Cooper earned a move to Oxford United in League One for an undisclosed fee. He signed a three-year deal. Cooper became the third player from an Irish league side to join Oxford, following in the footsteps of Gavin Whyte and Mark Sykes. Cooper made his Oxford debut as a second-half substitute in a 0–2 loss to Lincoln City in the first match of the 2020–21 EFL League One season on 12 September 2020. He made his full debut for Oxford three days later in an EFL Cup match against Watford, providing the assist for Robert Hall's goal but the U's would fall in a penalty shoot-out after the match finished 1–1.

Loan to Linfield

In December 2020, it was announced that he would return to Linfield on loan for the remainder of the 2020–21 season. U's manager Karl Robinson had revealed earlier in the month that Cooper had