Michael Chopra
Rocky Michael Chopra ( born December 23, 1983 in Newcastle upon Tyne ) is an English football player and currently in the Football League Championship for the FC Blackpool active.
The striker had previously stood at Newcastle United and Cardiff City under contract. More club stations were the Watford FC, Nottingham Forest and Barnsley FC, where he was employed for short periods on loan. In addition, he had gone through the junior national teams of England and was represented by the U-15 to U- 21 team in all teams.
Chopra was known as the son of an English mother and an Indian father's first player of Indian origin, who played a game in the Premier League and there succeeded a goal.
Sports career
Training at the Academy of Newcastle United
Michael Chopra was interested in at a very young age for the sport of football, it was trained by his father and could already have as a student first successes. In the school team the " Gosforth High School " in Newcastle, the Alan Shearer had previously visited once, and for the " Montagu Boys ' Club ", he drew attention to himself by his goalscoring, so Newcastle United him in July 1993 - at the age of nine years back - up in the club's academy.
In the 2000 /01 season he scored 28 goals for the youth team of Newcastle United and moved into the play-off of an "FA Premier Academy League U17 ". In December 2000, he signed his first professional contract in Newcastle and played for the U-19 selection of the Academy. After 14 goals in their first nine games, he was promoted to the senior level of the club and was from October 2001 with the allocation of a fixed number back part of the expanded cadre of the professional team. By the end of the season he came into the reserve team on seven goals in 17 missions.
Entry into professional football
At the beginning of the 2001/02 season underlined Chopra and his good Torquoten scored in the first five games of the U-19 youth team and the reserve team with nine goals. He signed in November a new three -year contract with his club and came on November 6 in the League Cup for the first time for the first team for the course. In the match against Everton he came in to replace Lomana LuaLua and as the game after regular time ended with a 3-3, Chopra missed a penalty - Newcastle then retired from the competition.
Even in the Champions League he came to his debut when he came off the bench in December 2002 at the Camp Nou against FC Barcelona. Then he came against Bayer 04 Leverkusen to use before he was loaned end of March 2003 for a month at the Watford FC. In six games, he met five times, completed the FA Cup semi-final against FC Southampton and shot the 7-4 victory against Burnley alone four goals.
Back in Newcastle when he came on 11 May 2003 by the 2-2 draw at West Bromwich Albion also his first Premier League game and then took part in the Junior World Championships in the United Arab Emirates.
In the season 2003/ 04 Chopra graduated four games for Newcastle United and was eventually loaned for one month at Nottingham Forest again in February 2004. After five games for Nottingham, he served two more times for the " Magpies ".
Only a short time later, he should be loaned out to another club and spent the entire 2004/05 season in the third-class League One FC Barnsley. In 39 games he scored 17 goals, including three goals against Peterborough United and Huddersfield Town. Also in the FA Cup and the League Cup he came for this team to use, became top scorer of the club and was club -house for this award as the best player of the season.
Chopra began the season 2005/ 06 in the starting lineup of Newcastle United and thereby acted early in the Intertoto Cup games. 's 3-1 away win against FK ZTS Dubnica the Slovak representatives on July 17, 2005, he scored his first goal for the senior team and exactly nine months later he met in the Premier League for the first time. A remarkable feature of the derby against AFC Sunderland (Newcastle won 4-1 at rivals ) was that Chopra was able to achieve his goal just ten seconds of Substitutes in the 60th minute, thus setting a speed record in the Premier League history.
Cardiff City
On 14 June 2006, Chopra joined for a fee of £ 500,000 to the club Cardiff City after he had previously rejected the contract extension for a further year. Chopra preferred the prospect of a permanent regular place in the Football League Championship and second-rate with his new club he had a good start to the season. Cardiff was standing with 36 points from their first 17 games at the top and on the basis of his seven Cup goals Chopra was consecutively elected in September and October for the best second division player of the month. On 27 January 2007 he scored all three goals for his club's 3-2 win against Leicester City.
On 5 April 2007 Chopra extended his contract at Cardiff City and he was nominated at the end of the season for the Championship Team of the Year. Although Cardiff City was finally ousted by the promotion places, Chopra spent with 22 goals in 42 games a successful season.
Sunderland AFC
Despite his previous contract extension Chopra signed on 13 July 2007 at the Premier League newly promoted Sunderland AFC a four-year contract with Sunderland, the exit clause Chopra took to complete, which allowed a change of clubs with a total of five million pounds. This high price evoked in the followers of the AFC Sunderland criticism - especially Chopra had also been previously when rivals Newcastle United active. In a preseason game against Bohemians Dublin he made his debut for his new club and shot in the first Premier League game of the season 2007 / 08-13 seconds of injury time - the decisive goal in a 1-0 victory against Tottenham Hotspur, where he was only late on in the second half. Also in the second championship game against Birmingham City, he scored a goal that finished a good early form in the season.
Return to Cardiff
After two loan periods between November 2008 and year-end and February 2009 to the end of the 2008 /09 Chopra returned in July 2009 final to Cardiff and back cost the Welsh club 's record transfer fee of three million pounds.