Michael Gray

While at school, Gray had trials with Manchester United and signed schoolboy forms, but decided against signing a contract at Old Trafford and continued playing for Fatfield Juniors F.C. in the Hetton Youth League. After 18 months he signed, as an apprentice, with Sunderland . He broke into the Sunderland first team shortly after his 18th birthday, at the beginning of the 1992–93 season . He made his senior debut on 21 November 1992 in a 1–0 win at Derby County in Division One (the first season after the creation of the new Premier League ). He played in various positions, including as a striker, left winger and left back before fading slightly from first team affairs. It was not until 1995–96 that he came to the fore, starting every game for Sunderland, invariably on the left side of midfield, as the team won promotion to the Premier League as Division One champions. Gray was also the scorer of their first Premier League goal, scoring the seventh-minute opener in a 4–1 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on 21 August 1996. [ 2 ] Gray continued to be a regular in the side in 1996–97 , but the club was relegated after just one year in the top flight. Gray gained unwanted attention a year later, in May 1998, when he missed the decisive penalty during a shoot-out in the First Division playoff final after a 4–4 draw with Charlton Athletic , which could have taken Sunderland back into the Premier League . Sunderland finished first in Division One the following season and won promotion to the Premiership, with Gray an ever-present for the campaign. As a First Division player, he was picked by Kevin Keegan to make his international debut for England as a substitute in the match against Hungary on 28 April 1999. In June 1999, he also played for England against Sweden and started the match against Bulgaria . He was the last outfield player from outside of the English top-flight to appear for England until David Nugent in 2007 (goalkeeper David James played for Engl — Wikipedia