Cook, Lewis John (Lewis)

2014-2016 (Player Leeds Details)(Player Details)

Midfield

Born: York, Yorkshire: 03-02-1997

Debut: v Millwall (a) substitute: 09-08-2014

Height & Weight: 5ft 9ins 10st 6lb

Born in York, he was very young, about six or seven, when he was discovered by Leeds playing for a junior club, Tadcaster Magnets and he joined and re-signed for, the Leeds United Academy each two years, and progressed through their junior teams. He actually played for the Under-eighteen team at the age of thirteen, before it was discovered that he was under age. Still a first year apprentice, he scored twice in eleven games for the Leeds Under-Eighteen team and also made four starts and had six games from the bench for the Leeds Under-Twenty-One team in 2013-14 season. He was called up for the England Under -Sixteen team and made his debut while still only fourteen, when he played on 12th October 2011 in a 3-1 win over Northern Ireland at Chesterfield. He was only fifteen, when he was first called up to the England Under-Seventeen team in the Nordic Tournament where they defeated Faroe Islands 2-0 on 6th August 2012, Finland 4-2, the following day, drew with Norway 0-0, on 9th August to win the Group but were beaten 2-0 by Sweden two days later in the play-off. He started the game against Faroe Islands but gave way to Callum Jones at half-time, he remained on the bench for the game against Finland, started against Norway but was replaced by Riccardo Calder after fifty-five minutes and started on the bench for the game with Sweden but came on to replace Brendan Galloway in the twenty- eighth minute and played the remaining fifty-two minutes. The games were of eighty minutes duration and for some reason have not been included in the FA statistics. He went on to play five times for the England Under-Sixteen team, the other four caps coming in the Montaigu Tournament, which took place in France, where England drew 1-1 with Netherlands, as Cook came on as a seventieth minute substitute for Demetri Mitchell, on 26th March 2013, but then played a full eighty minutes as England beat Chile 3-1, three days later, and drew with Germany 1-1 the following day, to reach the final two days later, where Turkey beat them on penalties (4-6) after the scores had been locked at 2-2. He went on to add a further eleven caps to his tally at the Under-seventeen level On 1st September 2013 he replaced Tosin Adaabioyo in the fourteenth minute to play the last sixty-six minutes of a 1-2 loss to Italy at the Pirelli Stadium, Burton-on-Trent. He then played twice in three days in friendlies against Belgium at St George's Park, Burton-upon-Trent as he came on as a fifty-eighth minute substitute for Callum Cooke to play twenty-two minutes in a 2-1 win on 28th January 2014 and the played a full eighty minutes in a 1-2 loss two days later. There were three more fixtures in the Algarve Tournament in 2014, but after playing the full eighty minutes in a 2-0 win over Netherlands on 26th February 2014 he remained on the bench in the 2-2 draw with Portugal but started his second game in the tournament as he played the first fifty-six minutes before being replaced by Kieran Dowell in a 0-1 defeat by Germany on 2nd March 2014. He next played two of the three 2014 UEFA Group Four Qualifiers in the Czech Republic where he played the full eighty minutes of the 1-0 win over the host nation on 26th March 2014, but remained on the bench for the 1-0 win over Albania two days later and started three days later in the 2-1 win over Italy, but gave way to Callum Cook with three minutes remaining as they qualified for the main competition. He was part of the squad for the three Group A matches of the finals which took place in Malta. He came on as a substitute in the 3-0 win over host nation Malta on 9th May 2014 and played eleven minutes after replacing Joshua Onomah in the sixty-ninth minute. The following day he played a full eighty minutes as Turkey were beaten 4-1 to ensure qualification for the next phase and three days later sat on the bench as the Netherlands won 2-0 to take top spot. He played the full eighty minutes in the 2-0 semi- final win over Portugal on 18th May 2014 to qualify for the final. Once more he was in the starting side and played seventy-four minutes before being replaced by Callum Cooke with six minutes on the clock and the score locked at 1-1. The game went to penalties which England won 4-1 for them to win the UEFA European Championship. He was one of several Junior players that were blooded in the pre-season games by David Hockaday and he played well enough to be included in the First Team squad for the opening League game of the season at Millwall on 9th August 2014 and he was given his chance after sixty-four minutes when he replaced Soulymane Doukara for his Leeds debut. He was given his starting debut three days later in the 2-1 win over Accrington Stanley in the League Cup and played sixty-six minutes before being replaced by Zan Benedicic. He was given four minutes against Middlesbrough and nine minutes against Brighton and Hove Albion in the next two home games on 16th and 19th August. He remained unused on the bench for the 1-4 defeat at Watford four days later and also in the League Cup defeat by Bradford City on 27th August, which resulted in the departure of David Hockaday. Neil Redfearn showed his belief in the young starlet and played him for the full game in the 1-0 home win over Bolton Wanderers, three days later. He was called up for the England Under-Eighteen team and started in the 4-1 win over Netherland on 3rd September 2014 but was replaced after eighty-one minutes by Joshua Onomah at Leigh, but sat unused on the bench at Gigg Lane, Bury as England beat the same opponents 3-1, two days later. Neil Redfearn continued to show his faith as he played full games in the 1-1 draw at Birmingham City on 13th September, the 3-1 away win at Bournemouth three days later and then the 3-0 home win over Huddersfield Town on 20th September when the caretaker coach was replaced by Darko Milanic. The new manager started him in his first two games but he was substituted by Michael Tonge with ten minutes remaining at Brentford the following week and after fifty-nine minutes by Luke Murphy in the home bore draw with Reading and then omitted him from the squad for the home game with Sheffield Wednesday on 4th October 2014. He did restore him to the starting team for the visit to Rotherham United on 17th October but took him off after sixty-three minutes to allow Adryan to make his debut. He was on the bench for the visit to Norwich City on 21st October and replaced Alex Mowatt with twenty-seven minutes left, but four days later he was back in the starting team for a full game in Milanic's final game in charge as they were beaten 1-2 by Wolverhampton Wanderers at Elland Road. After Neil Redfearn resumed the coach's position on a permanent basis, Cook became a regular fixture in his team, alongside several other young players. He started thirty-three League games and came on as a substitute in four more as well as starting in one League Cup tie. This would have been even more impressive had he not picked up an ankle injury while on duty for England Under-Nineteens in March 2015, which ruled him out for the rest of the season. He had been called up for the final three games in the European Under-Nineteen Championship qualifiers played in France against Denmark, Azerbaiijan and France and made his Under-Nineteen debut on 28th March 2015 in a 1-0 win over Azernaijan at the Stade Henri Jeanne, Bayeux, in which he started but was replaced after seventy-nine minutes by Charlie Colkett of Chelsea. Unfortunately, he then picked up the injury in training and took no further part in the competition. His efforts in the season received their just reward when he was elected Football League Championship Apprentice of the Year for 2014-15, then was named as the runner-up to Alex Mowatt in the Yorkshire Evening Post's Player Of The Year 2014-15. He also won the club's "Young Player Of The Year" award and also finished runner up to Alex Mowatt in the fans "Player Of The Year" award. On 11th May 2015, Cook signed a new two year contract with Leeds United, but there is little doubt that he is already under the microscope by several EPL clubs. He continued to be a regular in the Leeds team in the 2015-16 season and missed just three games after being sent off in the League Cup defeat at Doncaster Rovers. He continued to accumulate more England Under- Nineteen caps as he also became a regular with that team. He took his tally to nine with eight further appearances in the 2015-16 season. On 4th September 2015 he played a full game as he helped defeat Germany 3-2 at the Belkaw Arena in Bergisch Gladbach in a friendly international and three days later he came on for nine minutes when he replaced Josh Onomah of Tottenham Hotspur in another friendly against Croatia at the Sveti Josip Radnik in Sesvete in a 1-1 draw. There were three UEFA Euro Under-Nineteen Championship qualifiers in quick succession, which saw him unused on the bench in a 2-0 win over Macedonia on 8th October 2015, at the Training Centre Petar Milosevski, in Skopje, but this was followed by two full games, as England defeated Finland 1-0, two days later at the Stadion Boris Trajkovski in Skopje and then drew with Italy 0-0, three days later at the same venue. There were then two friendlies, the first of which he sat unused on the bench as England drew 2-2 with the Netherlands on 12th November 2015 at Juliana Sportpark in Gravenzande, and then he started and played sixty-two minutes before being replaced by Rico Henry of Walsall at the Academy Stadium, Manchester three days later in a 5-1 win over Japan Under-Eighteens. He added three more as England went to Spain to take part in further UEFA Euro Under-Nineteen Championship qualifiers. He played the full ninty minutes on 24th March 2016 as England defeated Georgia 2-1 at the Estadio Luis Rodriguez Salvador in Cartaya, then two days later he started on the bench but after sixty-seven minutes he replaced Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, of Manchester United as England drew 1-1 with Greece at the Estadio Ciudad de Lepe, and three days later he played a full game at the same venue as England defeated Spain by 2-0. He also featured strongly in the end of season awards winning the Leeds United Young Player of the Year and Football League Young Player of the Year for 2015-2016. He missed two England Under-Nineteen games against Mexico Under-Twenties when withdrew due to injury and remained on nine caps, while he was at Elland Road. After much speculation over his future, but still having a year to run on his two year contract signed in June 2015, he was sold to EPL side Bournemouth on 8th July 2016. He had been at Elland Road since the age of six and is likely to be an England International for years to come should he maintain his present rate of improvement. He signed a four year contract with the Cherries. Leeds had told Bournemouth there was a price of £10 million on his head, but this was negotiated down to an undisclosed sum, believed to be in the region of £6 million, but with incentives and other clauses it is thought that it would be possible to rise to £10 million.