Cardiff Star: ‘it does my head in!’

Cardiff City’s inspirational frontman Michael Chopra has spoken of his frustration after seeing Preston’s Dave Nugent put on stand-by for England duty.

Chopra has out-preformed Nugent this season with 21 league goals compared to just 14 for Nugent. Nevertheless the highly-rated forward has been much talked about and highly valued by Premiership clubs, a host of whom have watched him play.

Chopra is a similar player to Newcastle’s Michael Owen, and could no doubt do a job for England with his intelligent runs and clinical finishing. Nevertheless, he seems a world away from an England call-up – much to his frustration:

‘It does do my head in to see David Nugent called up like that for England, to be honest with you,’ said Chopra while speaking to the Western Mail.

‘He’s a good player, but I don’t think I’m getting a fair crack at the England set-up. Nugent has been playing for the Under-21s and that makes it easier to make the step up.

‘I wasn’t ever really given a chance at that level to show what I could do. I had one match, I scored a goal and was never called up again.’

‘All I can do now is take things on the chin and do my best at Cardiff and see if I can get a chance for England in future.’


In fairness, Nugent has risen through the ranks playing at Bury and Preston while Chopra has been restricted to loan spells whilst not breaking into the first team at Newcastle. His goals have fired Cardiff into an unexpectedly good position and another season as prolific could well see Chopra gain call-ups to the England first-team. The Geordi recently rejected offers from the India National team to play for them, in order to play for England. Who’d bet against him getting caps at some point in the future??