Former Rangers star Gordon Smith has opened upon hearing of the death of Ibrox icon Davie Cooper and admits the winger was the best player he played with during his career.
Cooper tragically died of a brain haemorrhage while filming a training video in 1995 and Smith has told how the news was broken to him after the death of one of the finest players ever to come out of Scotland.
“I’ll never forget the moment I heard. Someone from STV phoned me up to ask for my thoughts on Coop,” Smith told the Sunday Post.
“I thought they were maybe producing a documentary looking back on his career or something like that.
“I hadn’t heard the news, so they were the ones to break it to me. And I just remember being in total shock and thinking this couldn’t be true. That was a real heart-breaking moment for me.
“Coop and I had stayed good friends long after we had both stopped playing. We were actually meant to be having lunch the next day. It was so tragic what happened. He was the best player I played with at any point in my career.”
Smith insists that Cooper has to have a place in any all-time best Scottish team and only wishes there was more footage available of the mercurial winger for younger generations to see just how good he was.
“He was a special talent with a great technique,” Smith added. “People say he was one-footed but that was enough. It didn’t matter about his right foot as his left foot was so good.
“If you’re picking an all-time Scottish team then you’d have to have Coop in there. You couldn’t leave out someone with that talent. Any manager would have loved to have been able to call upon Davie and what he could bring.
“I just wish there was more footage available of Coop that we could all look back on.”