Mike Hooper (footballer)

Mike Hooper
Personal information
Full name	Michael Dudley Hooper
Date of birth	10 February 1964 (age 60)
Place of birth	Bristol, England
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Youth career
	Mangotsfield United
Senior career*
Years	Team
1983–1985	Bristol City
1985	Wrexham
1985–1993	Liverpool
1990	→ Leicester City (loan)
1993–1996	Newcastle United
1995	→ Sunderland (loan)
Total
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Michael Dudley Hooper (born 10 February 1964) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

As a player, he notably played in the

Sunderland

.

Early life

Hooper attended Glenfrome Junior School. As goalkeeper for the school team, his towering height proved an imposing sight to the opposition. He later attended Lockleaze Comprehensive School and played as goalkeeper in the same school team as fellow future professional footballers Gary Smart, Gary Penrice and Ian Holloway, who were all roughly the same age.

Hooper received a first class degree in

English Literature at Swansea University

.

Club career

Having started his professional career at Bristol City in 1983, and tasting regular senior football after signing for

1985-86 season. His debut for Liverpool came in the 1986 FA Charity Shield as a substitute for Bruce Grobbelaar.^[2] He was at Anfield for eight years, during which time the club won six major trophies, but his first team opportunities were limited by the presence of Grobbelaar, his only real opportunities of first team football coming in 1988–89 when Grobbelaar missed 17 league games through illness, but when Grobbelaar recovered Hooper was back in the reserves. The arrival of David James

in 1992 made his first team chances look even slimmer.

On 23 September 1993 Hooper signed for Newcastle United,

Pavel Srnicek, and he was loaned out to neighbours Sunderland in 1994–95

to gain more first team opportunities, although he did not play a first team game for them.

His fate was sealed when he was caught on camera openly laughing, whilst on the bench, after Newcastle had conceded a goal. He never played senior football again. The signing of Shaka Hislop confirmed this and left Hooper with little hope of even a place on the Newcastle bench during the 1995–96 season, but he remained at the club until the end of his contract in the summer of 1996 and finally left on a free transfer.