Return:

Michael Chopra was the first British-Asian to play in the Premier League seven years ago. He went on to score the first and so far only goal by a home-produced Asian player – the fastest goal on appearance at under ten seconds as a substitute against Sunderland in 2006. Chopra also was the first British-Asian to play and score in European competition – the Intertoto Cup. He achieved all this with Newcastle United before moving to Cardiff City.

He got a second taste of Premier League action with Newcastle’s bitter rivals Sunderland, before dropping down a league to play at a club and in a formation that suited him better – Cardiff again. Older and wiser Chopra is ready for another crack at the Premiership, but this time he wants to stay put and help the Bluebirds get promotion through the play-offs. Last season Cardiff missed out on goal difference.

“With what happened last year – us missing out on goal difference, we’re trying to put that right this year and I think with the position we’re in at the moment, we’ve got a great opportunity to do that,” Chopra told us. “Obviously last year was disappointing. We want to put things right and I think the manager’s brought some good players in this year. We’re just about right to get into the play-offs.”

Targets:

Chopra is happy at Cardiff and settled and the club is set to get into the play-offs. He knows that manager Dave Jones believes in him and that gives him confidence. “I probably play my best football down here,” he says. “If you look at all the other clubs I’ve been at I haven’t had a successful run in the team, whereas when I’m at Cardiff I know that I’m going to be playing. I think that if I miss two chances in a game here I know that the next game I’m going to be playing.”

He sets new targets for himself and his club every season. He wants to be the top-scorer in the division, but more importantly he hopes that Cardiff will be promoted. “I want to be successful,” he says. “I want to win trophies. I want to score lots of goals. I want to get promoted with Cardiff. That’s my main ambition at the minute. I think each season you’ve got to set yourself a new ambition and the main one for this season is to get promoted.”

If Chopra achieves his ambitions this season he will set another first – possibly never to be repeated – the first British-Asian player to play in the Premier League for three different clubs.

Dedication:

Chopra had to make sacrifices to achieve his dream of becoming a top footballer. He started as a youngster, playing alongside friends. Some of them were Asians and good players, but they fell by the wayside. Chopra gave up his weekends to concentrate on football. It was lonely at times. “I think I was the only one [Asian] at Newcastle,” Chopra told us. “I had a lot of friends in Newcastle at school. They were good enough. It’s about whether they had the dream of wanting to be a footballer or not. I think with football, you can go out and enjoy yourself afterwards. The main thing and the hardest thing is to take that step in becoming a footballer.”

He is the first to admit that he was fortunate. He received the support that he needed to turn undoubted talent into the career that he wanted. “As I was growing up my dad would take me to all the football games – all the Newcastle games,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s got something to do with family side or parents. I know you look at most Asians and they tend play cricket, so I don’t know if they’re being brought up in the family to like cricket and things like that.”

Chopra believes that background played an important part in his life and helps to explain why there are so few professional British-Asian footballers. “I think it depends on what your background is really – whether your mum and dad like football, or cricket or rugby,” he says. “Thankfully, my mum and dad both liked football and supported Newcastle, so my dad would always be there to take me. I think that could be one of the main reasons.”

He can’t remember any other Asians at Newcastle’s academy as he was growing up, so was he satisfied with the support the club gave him during his formative years? “I was given brilliant support,” said Chopra. “I think it helped that I had people like Kenny Dalglish and Bobby Robson as my managers. They both played at the highest level. I think as a young kid you need as much support as you can get and with them two people I had, they gave me as much support as I could get. Once you get past a certain age it’s just down to yourself.”