James Coppinger (born 18 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He began his career at Newcastle United, making one appearance in the Premier League, and later spent two years at Exeter City, but is best known for his association with Doncaster Rovers, whom he represented over seventeen seasons between 2004 and his retirement in 2021.
The only player ever to make over 600 appearances for Doncaster, he currently serves the club in a mentorship role. He is a former England under-16 international.
Career
Early career
Born in Guisborough, Cleveland, Coppinger started his career as a trainee for Darlington in 1997, though he was signed by fellow north-east side Newcastle United before he even made an appearance. Aged 17, he moved to Newcastle in a £500,000 joint deal with 19-year-old Paul Robinson in March 1998 when Kenny Dalglish was manager.
Coppinger later stated that as a teenager from a small town he was not fully prepared for life as a top-level professional player and he struggled to make any impact while coming through the Newcastle ranks, playing just once in the Premier League as a substitute against Tottenham Hotspur in August 2000.
After two loan spells at Hartlepool United and Queens Park Rangers, Coppinger's contract at Newcastle was ended by mutual consent and in July 2002 he moved to Exeter City in search of regular first team football.
Exeter City
He made his debut at Shrewsbury Town on 10 August 2002, netting his first goal two weeks later against Torquay United.
Coppinger has since stated that the move to the other end of England was a poor career choice at that stage of his development, and he admitted in 2015 that when Exeter were relegated from the Third Division at the end of the 2002–03 season, he was very close to quitting football. He said: "I had a lot of negative things going on in my life. I had a fear of failing – and also a fear of success. The way I was going and the way I was thinking, before I met Terry [Gormley, a motivational speaker], it was only a matter of time before I came out of football." He was persuaded to return to the club by manager Eamonn Dolan, and in his second season with Exeter he was involved in the England C (non-league select) squad, though records suggest he did not gain any official caps at that level.
Doncaster Rovers
Coppinger was bought by Doncaster manager Dave Penney for a reported £30,000 in May 2004 as he looked to strengthen the squad following promotion to League One. He was a constant feature in the side from the start, though in that first season, he failed to score in his 38 appearances. He scored an average of five goals in future seasons, his first goal eventually coming on 26 November 2005 in a 2–0 victory over Bristol City at Belle Vue.
He scored a hat-trick, described as "three goals of the highest quality" by the TV commentary, in the 2008 play-off semi-final against Southend United in a 5–1 victory which secured a place in the League One play-off final at Wembley against Leeds United. He was in Doncaster's starting eleven for the final, which Doncaster won, gaining promotion to the Championship.
On 14 September 2010, Coppinger scored a hat-trick against Norwich in a 3–1 victory.
On 21 July 2011, he signed a new contract at Doncaster which would keep him at the Keepmoat until 2014. Doncaster were relegated at the end of the 2011–12 season and needed to offload players to reduce the wage bill. As a result, he became a subject of interest from several Championship clubs including Barnsley, who he rejected a move to. After a few games, on 31 August, he was loaned to Nottingham Forest until January 2013 where he joined ex-Rovers players Simon Gillett and Billy Sharp under his former manager, Sean O'Driscoll. Dissatisfaction with the lack of games at Forest led him to return to Rovers after the loan spell.
Coming on as substitute in the 2–1 win over Stevenage on 12 January 2013, Coppinger reached the milestone of 300 league appearances for Doncaster, one of only ten players to do so at the club. On 27 April 2013, in an incredible final match of the season at Griffin Park, Coppinger scored the winning goal in a 1–0 away victory over Brentford in the final seconds of five minutes of added time just moments after Brentford's Marcello Trotta had hit a penalty against the crossbar. If Brentford had won, they would have been promoted and Doncaster would have had to compete in the play-offs. As it was, his goal put Doncaster one point above AFC Bournemouth and they were crowned champions.