Once upon a time, Ruud Gullit was crowned the best footballer on the planet.
The Dutchman won the Ballon d’Or in 1987, beating the likes of Real Madrid’s Emilio Butragueno and Barcelona striker Gary Lineker.
Gullit could play almost anywhere on the pitch and made a name for himself, of course, with Italian giants AC Milan between 1987 and 1994, winning the European Cup twice in a row.
The Amsterdam native is also widely known for captaining the Netherlands to glory at Euro 1988 after scoring in the final against the Soviet Union.
He went on to star for Chelsea before moving into management with mixed results.
Davie Cooper made Ruud Gullit’s perfect all-time XI
You’d think, given the illustrious career he enjoyed as a player, that there would be absolutely zero spaces for a Rangers player in his all-time football XI.
In 2007, he was asked by FourFourTwo to construct what he would describe as the perfect all-time football XI – and of course, it featured legends such as Diego Maradona and John Cruyff.
They were positioned in central midfield and up front respectively. On the left wing? He could have picked Ronaldinho, Ryan Giggs, Pavel Nedved. But Gullit went for Davie Cooper.
Hall of Fame inductee Cooper is one of Rangers’ greatest ever players having played for the Ibrox giants between 1977 and 1989, winning 13 major domestic trophies in total.
A seriously skilful player, Cooper came up against Gullit when the Dutchman was turning out for Feyenoord. Rangers played them in the European Cup and Gullit was wowed by Cooper’s ability.
Speaking to FourFourTwo, this is how Gullit described the great Davie Cooper: “I played against him in the European Cup when he was with Glasgow Rangers and he was a really skilful player. Unbelievably skilful.
“He didn’t have much pace but he was a good dribbler who set up plenty of chances for team-mates as well as scoring some great goals himself.
30 years since Davie Cooper’s tragic death
After starring for Rangers, Cooper went on to play for Motherwell and latterly Clydebank.
He then suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage on March 22, 1995. One day later, Cooper sadly passed away at the age of just 39.
The 30th anniversary of Cooper’s death was marked a few days ago by Rangers as a memorial service was held at his statue at the Hamilton Palace Sports and Recreation Grounds.
Coop was the one in the squad at that period that had something different from everybody else”, said former Rangers defender John ‘Bomber’ Brown.
“He had the ability to beat his man for fun. You know, drop the shoulder and go by someone, make a pass that nobody else could see, pop one in for a striker like Ally McCoist.
“He was just a special talent and that’s why I mentioned (at the memorial service) Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup, they were to a level you don’t see that often.
