Mike Hooper (footballer)

Mike Hooper

Personal information
Full name	Michael Dudley Hooper
Date of birth	10 February 1964 (1964-02-10) (age 47)
Place of birth	Bristol, England
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Youth career
	Mangotsfield United
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1983–1985	Bristol City	1	(0)
1985	Wrexham	34	(0)
1985–1993	Liverpool	51	(0)
1990	→ Leicester City (loan)	14	(0)
1993–1995	Newcastle United	25	(0)
1995	→ Sunderland (loan)	0	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Michael Dudley "Mike" Hooper (born February 10, 1964 in Bristol) is a former professional goalkeeper. He was most notable for his spell with Liverpool, where he mainly operated as an understudy to Bruce Grobbelaar. He also played for Newcastle United, his last professional club.

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 degree in English Literature at Swansea University before he was signed by newly appointed Liverpool player-manager Kenny Dalglish in 1985. 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 Bruce Grobbelaar, his only real opportunities of first team football coming in 1988–89 when Grobbelaar missed 17 league games through injury, but when Grobbelaar resumed his fitness 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,^[1] who had recently been promoted to the Premier League, making his debut two days later with a clean sheet against West Ham.^[1] Again, his first team opportunities were restricted, this time by 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. The signing of Shaka Hislop 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.

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.

Hooper now works as a bouncer for Studio nightclub in Chester-le-Street, Co. Durham.

Honours

• Charity Shield: 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990
• Screen Sport Super Cup: 1986

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Rothmans Football Yearbook 1994–95

External links

• Liverpool FC profile
• Profile at LFCHistory.net
• Mike Hooper career stats at Soccerbase

Persondata
Name	Hooper, Mike
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 10, 1964
Place of birth	Bristol, England
Date of death
Place of death