Steve Cooper has continued to create local headlines a year after leaving Leicester City, as the Welshman now manages Danish top-flight club Brondby.

Cooper is a famous name in the English Football League, having managed the Three Lions at age-group level before taking on his first senior managerial post with Swansea City two years later.

Two successive top-six finishes followed, a feat that the mid-table Welsh club has yet to repeat, and Cooper went for Nottingham Forest, where he earned promotion via the Championship play-offs at the end of the 2021/22 season.

Cooper would keep Forest in the Premier League after a 23-year absence, however he was relieved of his duties early in the following season.

Cooper remained in the East Midlands when he was appointed as Enzo Maresca’s successor at Leicester City following the Italian’s abrupt departure for Chelsea in the aftermath of the club’s promotion to the Premier League, though he only won two of his twelve games in charge and lasted only a few months.

The 46-year-old returned to management in September of last year, when he moved to Denmark to work at Brondby, but he was recently at the center of a brewing controversy involving the upcoming FIFA 2026 World Cup play-off semi-final between Wales and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which has now taken a new twist.

Steve Cooper’s Wales vs Bosnia-Herzegovina debate takes a new twist.

Ahead of Thursday evening’s crucial semi-final match at Cardiff City Stadium, in which the winner will face either Italy or Northern Ireland in the final, it was claimed that Cooper purposefully dropped 24-cap Bosnia-Herzegovina international Benjamin Tahirovic from Brondby’s last two games in order to sabotage the country’s chances of defeating Wales.

Such charges came from Bosnia-Herzegovina manager Sergej Barbarez, which Brondby swiftly disputed and the player in question clarified.

Barbarez stated Tahirovic told him “some things that are hard to believe” about the “coach’s origin”. He further stated that Cooper informed the ex-Ajax midfielder that “everything will return to normal after the national team season”.

However, the story has taken a new turn thanks to a recent update from Sky Sports reporter Lyall Thomas, who has laid those assertions to rest and provided much-needed clarity about Cooper’s relationship with Tahirovic.

According to Thomas, such accusations have been “outright rejected” as reported on Tuesday morning via X. Crucially, Tahirovic is claimed to have personally called Cooper to apologise for his manager’s claims, who may be feeling the spotlight as Bosnia-Herzegovina seeks its first World Cup appearance since Brazil in 2014.

Cooper, who was born in Pontypridd, will, of course, support his native country, but it was always a reach to believe he would jeopardize his club in the name of international allegiances, and the ex-Swansea manager must now appreciate Tahirovic’s efforts.

How is Steve Cooper doing in Denmark after leaving Leicester City?

Cooper is having a difficult reign in charge of Brondby as he attempts to rebuild a managerial reputation that has dipped since departing Forest in December 2023.

Brondby last won the Danish top flight in the 2020/21 season, and they have won 11 titles total. Cooper has coached 15 league games, winning six, drawing four, and losing five.

That form resulted in a fourth-place finish in the regular season, with a play-off match against Nordsjaelland coming up in two weeks, and Cooper’s team just created an unwelcome record by going six games without a goal in February and March.

Interestingly, Cooper has used his EFL connections and expertise to complete a number of deals for Brondby, including signing Coventry City defender Luis Binks, Atalanta’s Ben Godfrey on loan after a disastrous temporary stint at Sheffield United, and ex-Watford and Forest forward Emmanuel Dennis.