Cooper at 30: 30 Facts

Today is Colm Cooper's 30th birthday. Although the word legend is rarely used for a player still very much at the peak of his powers, it's fair to say that the Dr Crokes and Kerry forward has long since earned the right to that title.

To mark his 30th birthday, here's 30 facts about the great man.

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1. Kerry have won nine All-Ireland senior titles during Colm Cooper's lifetime (1984, 1985, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009). Three of them were won before he reached his fourth birthday.

2. Former Kerry senior goalkeeper of the mid 1990s Peter O'Brien credits himself with Colm's nickname. In the early 1990s, Colm was always kicking around with older players and there was a popular doll out at the time called a "Goochie Doll" with red hair - Peter nicknamed Colm "The Gooch" as a result.

3. In his autobiography, former Kerry football manager Jack O'Connor told how he first came to know of Cooper. "He grew up with a football. Word would have reached us down in South Kerry about how good he was when he was fairly young. When Declan started going into Killarney for underage Kerry teams, he'd come back with word of this skinny little kid called the Gooch who was literally unmarkable."

4. Colm's father, the late Mike Cooper, was a native of Glenflesk, the club of Seamus Moynihan.

5. Colm Cooper has scored 4-33 in All-Ireland senior football finals alone.

6. His highest tally in a final is 1-5, scored in the victorious All-Ireland finals of 2004 and 2007.

7. Colm has won seven GAA All Stars, the same amount as fellow Kerry legend Mikey Sheehy. The only footballer from any county to have won more All Stars than Colm is Pat Spillane, who has won nine.

8. Colm was the team mascot for Dr Crokes when they won the All Ireland Club Championship title in 1992.

9. Colm is 6'0 tall.

10. Colm made his senior Kerry debut at the age of 18 in the 2002 Division II league final against Laois. He scored 1-2, and his 'amazing' performance was hailed in The Kerryman newspaper.

11. He has played 73 championship games for Kerry.

12. In that time, he has scored 19 goals and 253 points, most recently hitting 0-4 in Kerry's win over Waterford on Saturday evening. He became the all-time top championship scorer last July, eclipsing Mikey Sheehy.

13. His league tally is not too bad either. He has scored 11 goals and 140 points in 52 league games for Kerry.

14. Legendary former Kerry player and manager Mick O'Dwyer says the following of Cooper: "From the day that I saw him as a Kerry minor, I knew that he was going to be one of the great players of our time. He proves it all the time. That's how good Gooch is. He is one of the best players I have ever seen."

15. Cooper made his debut for his club Dr Crokes in the 2000 Kerry County Championship against South Kerry, aged just 16.

16. He was on the winning side that day against An Ghaeltacht, alongside his four brothers Danny, Mike, Mark and Vince. The five Cooper brothers regularly played in the one team with Dr Crokes.

17. Colm played on the Kerry minor team in 2000 and 2001, and with the county U21 team in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

18. He has won four All-Ireland senior medals, three national league titles, six Munster senior medals, one Munster minor medal, one Munster U21 medal, four Kerry County Championships and three Munster Club Championships.

19. "I could hear Alan coming and I knew Kieran O'Connor was pretty close so I felt that if I got any nick on it at all there was a chance that it might hit the net." - That's what Colm Cooper said about his goal in the 2007 All-Ireland football final, when he heard Alan Quirke coming off his line and knew to flick it to the net as a result.

20. But he told GAA.ie last year that his favourite ever goal was the one he scored in the 2004 All-Ireland final. "My favourite goal is the one I got against Mayo in 2004 because of the circumstances - my first All-Ireland medal and just the way the match went for me. There was a little bit of all the skills in it: catching, side stepping, rolling the ball into the corner and coming back inside the defender. Everything came so naturally for me at that time. Those days don't happen too often too much in your career but that's one I will always remember."

21. Colm is a Liverpool FC supporter.

22. Colm's first championship goal for Kerry was against Fermanagh in an All-Ireland Qualifier in Portlaoise on July 6, 2002.

23. He took instantly to Croke Park as a championship footballer, registering 0-4 in his first senior game there in 2002 against Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-final, and 1-5 in the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork.

24. Cooper's highest championship tallies for Kerry is 1-8 and 2-5. He scored 1-8 against Cork in their replayed All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park in 2008, and 2-5 against Limerick in the 2005 Munster Championship.

25. He hasn't missed a championship game for Kerry since making his debut in 2002. He came on as a sub in the 2009 Qualifier win against Antrim, scoring 0-4.

26. Of Cooper's seven All Star awards, fellow Kerry footballer Tomás Ó Sé has been alongside him on four of the selections - in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

27. Unsurprisingly, Cooper has made more championship appearances against Cork than any other county - he has faced the Rebels 21 times in his career.

28. And he has scored the most against them as well, hitting 4-66 in his 21 games against them.

29. "I remember under the Cusack side and Liam Hassett gave me a pass. I was stretching to get there and Kieran McGeeney came on a 20-yard lung buster and he got me. He didn't topple me, but I felt it for a while after. I was 10 stone and 19-years-old playing against guys who were ripped and seasoned campaigners. They were at the peak of their powers. It was a learning curve, but I developed." - Colm Cooper on facing Armagh in 2002 All-Ireland final.

30. Tyrone have commonly been referred to as Kerry's greatest rivals over the last decade, and have denied the Kingdom on some of the biggest days of Cooper's career. Cooper has scored 0-17 against them in four championship appearances.

Thanks to John O'Leary (Kerry GAA) and John Keogh (Dr Crokes GAA) for assistance in compiling this article.