It is the kind of script even Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese might deem a touch far-fetched. Picture the scene: into the 102nd minute, James Coppinger, on as a substitute and for his first appearance aged 40, wearing a kit he designed with his sons to mark almost two decades of service to Doncaster Rovers – as well as gold boots decorated with his initials and number – dispatches a free-kick into the top corner to earn a 3-3 draw. As the Yorkshire Post put it, all that was missing was the red Superman cape.
There were tears after that equaliser 10 days ago and last weekend marked another milestone: Coppinger’s 800th career appearance. But in the summer, after 17 seasons at Rovers, he is set to retire, even if a teeny part of him is wrestling with the idea. “If we got promoted to the Championship it would be so difficult to walk away but right now … there’s no doubt in my mind that at the end of the season that will be it,” Coppinger says. “I try not to think about it and go down that road. Little things bring it on: ‘Last this, last that.’”
It has been an almighty innings punctuated by preposterous moments. Eight years ago Coppinger scored a 95th-minute winner to send Doncaster into the Championship at Brentford’s expense, seconds after Marcello Trotta’s penalty clattered the crossbar. “Another Roy of the Rovers story,” he says. “Forty-sixth game of the season, the last kick of the game to win your team promotion to go up as champions … You couldn’t have written that.”
Doncaster Rovers scored this manic goal against Brentford to clinch the League One title on this day in 2013! 😲
Reminds us of a certain Watford goal that happens just weeks later 👀 pic.twitter.com/aDhmKn8gpC
— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) April 27, 2020
Doncaster have surely not spent a better £30,000, the fee paid to sign Coppinger from then non-league Exeter in 2004. He has excelled for the club across the Football League, winning three promotions. “I think it works out that I’ve cost them about £50 a game,” says Coppinger, who is in line to record his 600th appearance for Rovers on Saturday. “I think you could say they got a bargain, but I was very grateful when they bought me. They showed faith in me and I’d like to think I’ve paid that back, and a little bit more.”
Coppinger was a trainee at non-league Darlington and his roots remain in Guisborough, a dozen miles south of Middlesbrough, where he grew up idolising Juninho as a season-ticket holder – “I only really went to watch him” – but his professional debut came for Newcastle under Sir Bobby Robson, as a substitute in a 2-0 victory over Tottenham at St James’ Park. In five years, he went from Sunday League to partnering Alan Shearer up front. “He [Robson] kissed his hand, slapped me around the face and said: ‘Don’t let me down, son.’ That was his way of saying: ‘I believe in you.’ He always believed in me but I didn’t believe in myself, and that is where I was at the time.
“In pre-season, when I was training with the first team, we would partner up –because I was up from the reserves he [Robson] would go with me – and we would be doing sit-ups and press-ups. He would be doing them all and the lads would be in stitches. Gary Speed, Alan Shearer and Duncan Ferguson would be laughing their heads off and I’d be trying to keep a straight face while he was trying to do 10 burpees. He was so charismatic. Every single day he would give everything. He was so authentic and you believed everything he said because he said it with so much passion.”
Robson once compared Coppinger to Gianfranco Zola but was not so enamoured when he spotted his sports car in training. “I bought a BMW Z3 after I made my debut and a security guard waved me in thinking I must be a first-team regular, and I actually parked my car next to Sir Bobby’s. As we were warming up I could see the gaffer pointing at my car. He said: ‘Whose is that car?’ I said it was mine and he absolutely went off on one and said: ‘Who do you think you are? You’ve made one appearance.’ I sold the car … every time I got in it after that I didn’t feel like I deserved it. He was spot on.”
Supporters have flooded Coppinger with messages pleading with him to prolong his career. Some have suggested a statue outside the Keepmoat Stadium. “There is a hashtag – #onemoreyear – floating around, where fans are saying: ‘Surely you can do one more year and then we’ll have fans back?’ My dad has slept in his car, ferried me up and down the country when I was playing for England under-16s, 17s, 18s – he’s been everywhere – and for him not to get the opportunity to watch me for the last time, potentially, is really sad.”
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Coppinger has been the butt of granddad barbs for a while – in November, he was replaced by a 17-year-old Liam Ravenhill, whose father, Ricky, he played alongside at Doncaster, and at Exeter he was in the same midfield as Ethan Ampadu’s dad, Kwame – but at the end of the season his expertise will turn to the touchline and encouraging his boys, Finley and Isaac. “I coach both of their teams … I was going to try and cling on to see if they can make it and then I could play with them,” Coppinger says, laughing.