On Friday 19th March 2004, Norwich boss Nigel Worthington welcomed a new face to Colney following a sudden overnight swoop for Wolves midfielder Kevin Cooper.

The 29-year-old former Derby, Stockport and Wimbledon player joined the Canaries on loan until the end of the season after suddenly curtailing his current loan deal at Sunderland in order to team up with his former Wolves pal Marc Edworthy for the final 10 games of City's season. After being stuck in the queue for places behind Black Cats star Julio Arca, Cooper was delighted to be in with a chance of regular first-team action after a thoroughly frustrating season.

"It's been a case of going from one end of the country to the other, but this is a great opportunity for me to get something out of a season that appeared to be going nowhere."

Cooper's fortunes took a turn for the worse when he sustained a serious ankle injury in Wolves' second game of the season against Charlton. Ever since, he had been playing catch-up, with the Canaries hoping that they will reap the benefit of Cooper's return to full fitness and obvious eagerness to make his mark somewhere this campaign.

He's got a quality left foot, can get at people, come inside and score a goal - as we know from the play-offs," said Worthington, Cooper having almost dented Norwich's chances of a place in the Division One play-off final at Cardiff two years ago with the only goal of the semi-final, second leg at Molineux. That strike had lingered long in the City manager's memory as he revealed that Cooper had figured large in his thoughts long before the decision to add Cooper's experience to the right-hand side of the City midfield.

"He was someone we'd considered before we brought Darren Huckerby, Matt Svensson and Leon McKenzie in, but at the time circumstances were such that Wolves didn't want to let him out," said Worthington, swift to pay tribute to those who had made such a quick loan move possible.

The move was also helped by Cooper's long-standing friendship with Canary full-back Edworthy. He was not, however, the only familiar face to greet Cooper after representatives of both Wimbledon and Stockport County were also in attendance. "I know Marc very well but I also know Damien Francis from Wimbledon and young Briggsy from Stockport," said Cooper, who made a £1m switch to Wolves in 2002.

Cooper made his debut as a substitute in the Canaries' 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace on 20th March 2004. Playing an important role as the Canaries won the Division One title, the Canaries enquired about bringing Cooper to Carrow Road on a permanent basis. This looks unlikely with Wolves' asking price not in the same ballpark as Norwich's estimation.

On 29th July 2005, Cardiff signed Cooper along with West Brom defender Darren Purse and Northern Ireland international midfielder Phil Mulryne.

On 29th September 2006, Kevin joined Yeovil on a month's loan. Another loan period began towards the end of February 2006 when Kevin joined Walsall along with Kevin Harper. Returning to Cardiff, he was placed on the transfer list in May 2007.

On 25th October 2007, Kevin was loaned out to Tranmere Rovers and was given permission to play for Rovers in the FA Cup first round on 10 November, even though he became cup-tied.

Kevin returned to Cardiff but was released from his contract on 1st February 2008. He joined Chesterfield until the end of the season on February 8, 2008] and made a goalscoring debut the following day. Kevin was released by Chesterfield at the end of the 2007/8 season.

Cooper returned to South Wales in mid-July 2008 signing for Conference South side Newport County.

Released by Newport in November 2009, Kevin signed for Neath on 9th January 2010 along with Grimsby striker Chris Jones.

Cooper relocated to Malaysia to manage Cardiff's 1MCC - One Malaysia Cardiff City - which is linked to the Far Eastern ownership of Cardiff City. Ahead of the start of the 2012-13 season, Cooper returned to Cardiff City to operate as the coach of the club's under 21's side

In June 2014, Cooper became manager of Swiss side Servette when Cardiff's former commercial director Julian Jenkins approached him about a new project he was working on with Servette in Geneva.

At my age, there are not too many opportunities in England to manage a club of this stature and pedigree,' says Cooper. 'As soon as I met the owner Hugh Quennec and spoke to Julian it was clear we had the same philosophy. They accepted that I was young and would make mistakes but there was no extra pressure. It was better than anything I could have imagined back in the UK.'

Although he guided the team to second place in the Swiss Challenge League, the team was relegated to the third tier of Swiss football for 2015-16 for financial reasons. On 4th November 2015, fellow Challenge League side FC Wil announced that they had signed Cooper on a contract that would keep him at the club until 2017

On 18th January 2017, was appointed as Assistant Manager at Hartlepool but was sacked on 24th April of the same year.

In 2019 he was appoitned manager of Malaysian side Armed Forces (also known as ATM FA)

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