Ty Gooden is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 former professional footballer. He played for teams including Arsenal

Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

, Wycombe Wanderers

Wycombe Wanderers F.C.

Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional football team from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, which has been promoted to Football League One after finishing third in Football League Two in the season 2010–11. The club's nicknames are "The Chairboys" and "The Blues", and they play...

, Swindon Town

Swindon Town F.C.

Swindon Town Football Club are a team based in Swindon, Wiltshire. Currently in League Two, Swindon have been managed by Paolo Di Canio since 23 May 2011...

, Gillingham

Gillingham F.C.

Gillingham Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, they play their home matches at the Priestfield Stadium...

 and Canvey Island

Canvey Island F.C.

Canvey Island F.C, known as the Gulls or Yellow Army, are an English football club founded in 1926 that play in the Isthmian League Premier Division....

.

During his time at Swindon he was often inconsistent. He became the first transfer to take place in the new millennium, when Gillingham manager Peter Taylor signed him for £100,000, in a deal that saw Swindon team mate Iffy Onuora

Iffy Onuora

Ifem "Iffy" Onuora is a coach a former professional footballer born in Scotland of Nigerian descent.He was recently the head coach of the Ethiopia national team...

 join the Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 club as well. Later that year Gooden won promotion to the First Division with Gillingham, after they beat Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic F.C.

Wigan Athletic Football Club is an English Premier League Association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, having been promoted from the Championship in 2005. Wigan's current spell in the Premier League is the only top flight run in the club's history.They have played at the DW...

 3-2 in the Division Two play-off Final at the old Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium

The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...

, Gooden providing the cross for Andy Thomson

Andy Thomson (Scottish footballer)

Andrew "Andy" Thomson is a former Scottish professional football player. He played in 549 league matches, scoring 195 league goals in a career that saw him play for Queen of the South, Partick Thistle, Falkirk and Stenhousemuir in Scotland and Southend United, Oxford United, Gillingham and...

 for the winning goal. He had a successful first season in the First Division

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 with Gillingham, helping them to finish 13th in the league. However, injury hampered the rest of his time at the Gills and, in 2003, he was sold to non-league Canvey Island.

Gooden was the European scout

Scout (sport)

In professional sports, scouts are trained talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scout's organization...

 for Reading

Reading F.C.

Reading Football Club is an English association football club based in the town of Reading, Berkshire who currently play in the Championship...

 operating from France. Gooden finished working for Reading after they failed to gain promotion to the Premiership. He has now joined Sunderland

Sunderland A.F.C.

Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...

 as their scout in France.

After a brief spell with Sunderland, Gooden has secured a contract working as a scout at Arsenal

Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

in France.