BREAKING: Leicester City Appoint Steve Cooper As Head Coach—-Leicester City Football Club can today confirm the appointment of Steve Cooper as their new Head Coach ahead of the 2024/25 Premier League season.
Steve, 44, has agreed a three-year contract and arrives at King Power Stadium as the Club continues its preparations for our top-flight return, following promotion from the Sky Bet Championship last season.
A manager of Premier League experience following a successful spell with Nottingham Forest, whom he guided to and established in the top flight between 2021 and 2023, Steve has built an excellent reputation in the game for his qualities as a coach and a leader.
Born in Pontypridd, Cooper followed a playing career in Wales by becoming one of the youngest coaches to achieve the UEFA Pro Licence, aged 27, while coaching with Wrexham.
He left his role as Head of Youth Development at Wrexham to join Liverpool as an academy coach in September 2008 and was later named Academy Manager, coaching the club’s Under-18s during the 2012/13 campaign.
In October 2014, he took charge of England’s Under-16s team before his appointment as Under-17s manager the following year. He led his side to the final of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship in May 2017 before they were crowned FIFA Under-17 World Cup winners five months later.
Steve joined Swansea City as Head Coach in June 2019 and finished sixth in his first season in charge, with the Swans beaten over two legs by Brentford in the play-off semi-final.
He then secured a fourth-place standing the following campaign, and guided his side to the play-off final, where they were beaten by Brentford at Wembley.
After his departure from South Wales in July 2021, Steve was named Nottingham Forest manager in September of the same year. He remarkably led the City Ground outfit from the bottom of the Championship to a fourth-place finish in his first season in charge, which culminated in promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs.
He ensured Forest’s top-flight status the following year before leaving the club in December 2023.
Steve will now begin an exciting new chapter as Leicester City manager, with the playing squad due to return to pre-season training in early July.
It is the first major title for Tottenham since it won the English League Cup in 2008, and its first European triumph since it won its second UEFA Cup — the equivalent of the Europa League now — in 1984.
Brennan Johnson squeezed in the winner at the end of the first half on Wednesday to help Spurs salvage a dismal season, in which it will finish near the bottom of the Premier League standings.
The title guarantees Spurs a spot in next season’s Champions League, and brings some much-needed relief for manager Ange Postecoglou after he struggled to keep his team on track all year.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Brennan Johnson, left, scores their first goal [Vincent West/Reuters]
The victory comes six years after Tottenham fell short against Liverpool in the Champions League final.
The defeat adds pressure on United coach Ruben Amorim, whose team sits in 16th place — just ahead of Tottenham — in the Premier League. The club will not play in any European competition next season.
United came close to equalising the match on Wednesday when a header by Rasmus Hojlund was cleared at the goal line by Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven in the 68th.
Deep into stoppage time, a header by Luke Shaw prompted a difficult save by Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Micky van de Ven clears the ball off the line [Andrew Couldridge/Reuters]
It had been an even match, with neither team creating many significant scoring opportunities, until Tottenham got on the board in the 42nd minute after a cross by Pape Sarr into the area.
The ball ricocheted off Shaw and fell in front of Johnson, who seemed to get just enough of it to poke it across the goal line.
United pressed forward after conceding, but was not able to get the equaliser in front of a split crowd of nearly 50,000 at Athletic Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium.
Manchester United’s captain, Bruno Fernandes, looks dejected as he walks past the trophy after collecting his runners-up medal [Isabel Infantes/Reuters]
United had last won a trophy in the 2024 FA Cup, and its last European triumph was at the 2017 Europa League under manager Jose Mourinho.
The Red Devils lost all four matches against Tottenham this season and is winless against its rival in seven straight games, with the last six under Postecoglou.
United and Tottenham had met in just one previous final — the 2009 League Cup when Alex Ferguson’s United won 4-1 on penalties after a 0-0 draw.
Tottenham striker Son Heung-min, who came off the bench in the 67th, finally ended his decade-long trophy drought with Spurs.