Fat Footballers: Michael Chopra

The Football WE Like has moved to India to recruit a new Fat Footballer: he’s Michael Chopra, currently playing for Kerala Blasters FC in the Indian Super League.

Rocky Michael Chopra was born in 1983 in Newcastle upon Tyne from an English mother and an Indian father, and was formed in the Youth Sector of the most important local club, Newcastle United FC.
He made the first appearances for the First Team, both in Premier League and in UEFA Champions League, in 2012/13 Season, in which he also had a brief loan spell with Watford FC, with whom he scored 5 goals, 4 of them in a single match, in 6 games and he also represented England at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.
In 2003/04 Season he played just few games for Newcastle United FC and Nottingham Forest FC (on loan), while in the following one he was sent on loan to Barnsley FC (League One, third tier), with whom he had a very positive season, scoring 17 goals in 39 matches, being the club’s top scorer and being named their Player of the Season.
Chopra spent the whole 2005/06 Season at Newcastle United FC, scoring one goal in Intertoto Cup, one in FA Cup, and one in Premier League (his first and only one so far) against Sunderland: this one was then the fastest goal in Premier League history, because he had entered the match just 15 seconds before scoring, an it was also the first goal goal scored by a player of Indian parentage.
In the following Season he was sold to Cardiff City FC (Championship), with whom he had an awesome year, scoring 22 goals in 42 games: his performances attracted the interest of Premier League clubs, such as Sunderland AFC, that signed him for £5M: in the first season with The Black Cats he registered 6 goals, including the first goal of the 2007–08 Premier League season.
He spent the majority of the following year back to Cardiff City FC, with whom he had two loan spell, scoring 11 goals in 27 matches.
In Summer 2009 the Welsh club signed him on a permanent basis for £3M: in Wales he spent two seasons, scoring 28 Championship goals in 73 matches and 2009/10 Season had been particularly good because he had ended it with 21 goals in all competitons and, according to some rumors, Fabio Capello considered to call him, despite playing in the second tier, for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but those rumors never came true.
In the Summer of 2011 he moved again, and he spent the following two Seasons at Ispwich Town, scoring 18 goals in 78 matches, despite his weight was increasing: before 2012/13 Season the club sent him to a fitness camp in USA, where he had to wake up at 05.30 AM every morning, go for long hikes and practise joga in order to loose some kgs.
In July 2013 he was signed by Blackpool FC, managed by Paul Ince, but he failed to score any goal in 18 League matches and in January he had to sustain few special training sessions to improve his fitness (together with six other players) because he probably had eaten too much during the festive period, but he strongly complained for that on Twitter: “F**king joke this come in training only 6 f**king players here then find out the fitness coach taken the football session“, and so was fined by the club for £10.000.
Obviously FC Blackpool didn’t renew his contract, so in Summer 2014 he was a free-agent and moved to India.

Michel is also famous for having a seven-month-long marriage, for being addicted to gambling on horse racing (he got several debts and spent few time on rehab while playing for Ispwich Town) and for sending threats (for unknown reasons) via Twitter to Ashley Williams, the Swansea City AFC Captain, who deleted his account after that.