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Michael Chopra
Personal information
Full name	Rocky Michael Chopra [1]
Date of birth	December 23, 1983 (1983-12-23) (age 24)
Place of birth	Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Sunderland
Number	16
Youth clubs
1993-2000	Newcastle United
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000-2006 2003 2004 2004-2005 2006-2007 2007-	Newcastle United → Watford (loan) → Nottingham Forest (loan) → Barnsley (loan) Cardiff City Sunderland	21 0(1) 05 0(5) 05 0(0) 39 (17) 42 (22) 16 0(3)
National team2
2002	England U21	01 0(1)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:10, 29 November 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 01:30, 11 March 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Michael Chopra (born 23 December 1983 in Newcastle upon Tyne) is an English footballer currently playing for the Premier League side Sunderland. Michael Chopra is of both English and Indian descent.

Chopra plays as a striker. He was originally a product of the Newcastle United Youth system. In his career he has also played for Cardiff City and has spent loan spells at Watford, Nottingham Forest and Barnsley. He has represented England at the Under-15, Under-16, Under-17, Under-18, Under-19, Under-20 and Under-21 levels.

The son of an English mother and an Indian father, Chopra made news for being the first player of Indian parentage to play and score in the Premier League.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Newcastle United Academy 1.2 First Team Football 1.3 Cardiff City 1.4 Sunderland 2 Personal life 3 References 4 External links

Chopra attended Alan Shearer's former school, Gosforth High School, in Newcastle, and owing to his goal-scoring exploits there, and later with the Montagu Boys' Club, was recruited to the Newcastle United academy in July 1993.^[2]

In the 2000-01 season, he scored 28 goals for the Newcastle Academy side that reached the FA Premier League Academy Under-17 playoff final. In December 2000 he signed his professional contract with Newcastle. The next season, playing for the Academy Under-19 team, he scored 14 goals in the first 9 games of the season, prompting a promotion to the Senior Reserves. He went on to score in the Northumberland Senior Cup final victory over Bedlington Terriers in September 2001. Then in October, Newcastle gave him a squad number. By the end of the season, he had made 17 appearances for the Reserves, scoring 7 goals.

The 2002-03 season started well, with Chopra scoring 9 goals in his first 5 games for the Under-19s and Reserves. In November he signed a new three-year deal with the club, and on November 6, he made his senior debut against Everton in the League Cup, substituting Lomana LuaLua. The game ended 3-3, but Newcastle lost the penalty shootout, with Chopra booed off after missing his spot-kick.

He made his UEFA Champions League debut in December 2002, as a substitute against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, and also played against Bayer Leverkusen before he moved on a month-long loan to Watford at the end of March 2003. He scored 5 goals in just 6 matches for Watford, appeared in a FA Cup semifinal against Southampton, and scored four goals in a 7-4 win over Burnley.

The season ended on a positive note when he made his Premiership debut for Newcastle in the 2-2 draw away to West Brom on 11 May 2003. He also represented England at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.

In 2003-2004, he played four games for Newcastle before being loaned to Nottingham Forest for a month in February 2004 where he played five games. Returning from the loan spell he played another two games for Newcastle.

In August 2004 he went on another loan, this time to Barnsley. Playing in 39 matches in the League One, he scored 17 goals, including hat-tricks against Peterborough United and Huddersfield Town. He also represented Barnsley in the FA Cup and the League Cup, finishing as the club's top scorer and their Player of the Season.

Chopra began the 2005-06 season back in Newcastle's first team squad and played in early UEFA Intertoto Cup ties, scoring his first senior goal for Newcastle in the 3-1 win away to Slovakian side Dubnica on 17 July 2005. On 17 April 2006 Chopra scored his first Premiership goal against Sunderland in the 60th minute of the Tyne-Wear derby, which ended 1-4. The goal was the fastest in Premiership history, as Chopra had only been on the pitch for 10 seconds after coming on as a substitute.

On 14 June 2006 Chopra joined Cardiff City for £500,000 after turning down a new one-year contract at Newcastle in favour of guaranteed first-team football. Chopra and Cardiff had an excellent start to the season, with 36 points from 17 games leaving Cardiff top of the Championship and Chopra, with 7 league goals was voted Championship player of the month for September and October. Chopra scored his first Cardiff hat-trick on 27 January against Leicester City in a 3-2 victory.

Chopra signed a contract extension with Cardiff City on 5 April 2007,^[3] and was named to the PFA Championship Team of the Year on 22 April.^[4] Although Cardiff dropped out of promotion contention, Chopra had a successful season, ending with 22 goals from 42 matches.

On 13 July 2007, newly promoted Premiership side Sunderland agreed a deal worth up to £5 million, activating a release clause, to sign Chopra on a four year contract. This caused unrest among some Sunderland fans due to the seemingly high price-tag and his Geordie roots.^[5] Chopra made his debut for Sunderland in their 1-0 win over eircom league side Bohemians. In this match Chopra missed an open goal and ran into his own team mate Dickson Etuhu. Chopra scored his first goal for Sunderland in a 4-0 friendly victory over Galway United. His first competitive goal for Sunderland came in his first competitive match for the club, and was the first goal of the 2007-08 Premier League season, when Chopra came on as a substitute late in the second half and scored the winning goal against Tottenham Hotspur in injury time with 13 seconds remaining on the clock. This lead to many Sunderland fans chanting 'Chopra's one of us!' Chopra also scored in the second Premiership match of the season against Birmingham.

'Chops' has found life difficult at Sunderland since his last goal against Midlands side Birmingham, having not found the net for a period of 13 competitive matches.

Chopra could have scored against former side and childhood club Newcastle United but his goal drought continues after his header collided with the bar from only 5 yards out. chopra also scored against reading from the penalty spot. He sent the reading keeper the wrong way. This ended his goal drought.

Michael appeared in OK! magazine in the UK in October 2007 announced he had become engaged to Heather Swann, and that they are expecting their first baby, due at the beginning of 2008.^[6]

• Michael Chopra career stats at Soccerbase
• BBC Profile as a Newcastle player
• News story on official The Football Association website
• Chopra joins Cardiff
• PFA October player of the month award for Chopra

v • d • e Sunderland A.F.C. – current squad

1 Gordon • 2 Halford • 3 Harte • 4 Etuhu • 5 Nosworthy • 6 McShane • 7 Edwards • 8 Whitehead • 9 Stokes • 10 K. Richardson • 11 Murphy • 12 Miller • 13 Ward • 14 Higginbotham • 15 Collins • 16 Chopra • 17 Jones • 18 Leadbitter • 19 Yorke • 20 Cole • 21 Anderson • 23 O'Donovan • 24 Carson • 26 Pelter • 27 Varga • 29 Hartley • 30 J. Richardson • 31 Connolly • 33 Wallace • 35 Kay • 36 Donoghue • 37 Weir • 38 Chandler • 39 Waghorn • 40 Dowson • 41 Liddle • Manager: Keane