Although a native of Ipswich, Norwich's arch-rivals, Louie Donowa joined Norwich City as a youth in 1980 aged 16 turning professional in September 1982. Part of the FA Youth Cup winning side of 1983, Louie managed to make the step-up to professional football in the top-flight making his first-team debut against Sunderland in the Milk Cup in 1982. By the time he departed for Spain and Deportivo La Coruna in February 1986, he had made 80 appearances for the Canaries, scoring 15 times. The highlight of this spell being the Milk Cup victory over Sunderland in April 1985. The lowlight being a loan spell to Stoke City in 1985 (4 appearances)

He spent three years in Spain before returning to England and his hometown team Ipswich Town although he had trials with Sheffield United and Dutch side Willem 11 Tilburg. 23 games for the Suffolk side preceded a move to Bristol City in July 1990 and the following summer he joined Birmingham City. 116 league appearances (18 goals) for Birmingham were punctured with loan spells at Burnley, Crystal Palace, Shrewsbury and Walsall. He followed manager Barry Fry to Second Division Peterborough in the summer of 1996 although newspaper speculation the previous year had suggested a return to Carrow Road. In July 1997, he was transferred from Peterborough to Walsall before he joined Scottish side Ayr.

In July 1998, Louie had a trial with Cambridge United. He also trained with Northampton Town but was expected to be offered a short term contract by Cambridge. Surprisingly he didn't travel with the U's to Torquay for their opening game of the 1998/99 season and instead played for King's Lynn in a friendly against Boreham Wood. He then signed for Finnish side TPS Turku.

The March 1999 edition of Team Talk magazine revealed that Louie had since signed for Dr Martens Leaguers Boston United where he will face competition from Chris Waddle for a place on the wing. His stay in Lincolnshire was brief as Louie only played one game for Boston (and was substituted in that) before being released.

On Transfer Deadline Day (23rd March 2000) Louie had joined non-leaguers Tamworth but he has since moved on.