The 21-year-old striker's Newcastle career may be in the past, but Ohio State has provided a chance for a fresh start
In November 2023, Michael Ndiweni had achieved his childhood dream. He jogged onto the grass at St. James Park, wearing the signature black and white stripes of his boyhood Newcastle. And, with his first touch as a professional footballer, he nutmegged Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella.
A year later, he was at rock bottom, training sparingly and watching a professional career fade further into the distance.
Ndiweni knew his time was up in England. A Geordie by birth, he had been released by his boyhood club, and was running on fumes to keep his soccer career alive.
The routine was mind-numbing: train with his non-league team three days per week, coach in between, babysit his sister during the day. There he was, in his early 20s, stuck in an unforgiving position so many would-be pros eventually confront.
One day, after extensive conversations with his best friend – a swimmer at a college in Florida – Ndiweni opened his laptop and emailed every college soccer coach he could find, essentially pitching himself. Only one responded: Brian Maisonneuve at Ohio State University.
There began the most unlikely of journeys, one from the Premier League – and that megging of Cucurella with his first touch – to the American midwest. Now, Ndiweni is at the end of his first season playing collegiately in Columbus. And there is a sense that this Geordie boy still has a chance at professional soccer.
“The goal is still to make it pro, at any level,” he told GOAL.
Getty'Oh, he used to play for Newcastle'
Ndiweni doesn’t have a thick Geordie accent – famously one of England’s hardest to understand. Well, not at first, anyway. Talk to him, and his accent is hard to place, a run of the mill pattern of speech from the UK. Listen hard and there’s a northern twang in there.
But ask him about soccer, and the Newcastle in him comes out. Ndiweni spent eight years of his life in the Newcastle academy, to some success. He made his Premier League debut in 2023. He was on the bench for a Champions League fixture last season.
“When I was in non-league, it wasn’t really a big thing, but it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy's been at the top. Now he's, like, playing step five football,” Ndiweni said. “And like, people on the pitch would be like, ‘Oh, he used to play for Newcastle.’”
And now, he’s in the American heartland. Life has changed drastically in the last 18 months. At one point, Ndiweni had a burgeoning professional career ahead of him – perhaps, even, at his beloved Newcastle. But now, things look different.
He is, instead, a college soccer player, who trains and plays like he would back home – and also attends classes every week. Yet his childhood dream still remains alive, no matter how far from home he is.
AdvertisementGettyOne of their own
It was, in fact, almost a reality. He’s replayed the moment in his head thousands of times, and Ndiweni still isn’t sure if he megged Cucurella. It was the 93rd minute of Newcastle’s Premier League fixture against Chelsea. He was a garbage time substitute, thrown on by manager Eddie Howe to get the slightest taste of Premier League football.
Ndiweni remembers his first touch clearly. It was probably a bad one. He cushioned it a bit too heavily, and as Spanish left-back Cucurella charged, it ricocheted through his legs. Ndiweni, in shock, latched onto the loose ball and passed it off to a teammate. The St. James Park crowd applauded warmly.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so surreal.’” Ndiweni said.
Had he really just nutmegged an eventual European Championship-winning defender with his first touch in professional soccer? To this day, he doesn’t fully recall. But that was supposed to be his arrival. It’s the kind of thing you hear over and over in European soccer. Ndiweni held his own, albeit for about three minutes. From there, he was supposed to work his way into the side, minute by minute.
There would be cup appearances, valuable moments off the bench – the local lad embraced by the home support. Michael Ndiweni, surely, would be one of their own.
Getty'I had the drive, but no structure'
Yet it didn’t quite work out that way. Newcastle released Ndiweni in June 2024. He was never going to break into the team with Alexander Isak starting up front. Before long, he was playing non-league football. It was immensely tedious. Professional footballers can’t overwork their bodies.
So, Ndiweni was pushing himself as far as he could, without damaging anything. A routine was soon established of gym sessions, ball work, and then two practices per week with a local non-league side.
“I didn't have, like, a full-time schedule. I had the drive, but I had no structure. It was very difficult,” he said. “Sometimes your days are filled with nothing.”
In between, he coached kids.
“Every professional player who goes out of the professional game goes into coaching,” Ndiweni explained.
He looked after his sister and took her to and from school. Outside of that he “just chilled.” There were some special moments. He flirted, briefly, with the Baller League, a small-sided competition that is growing in prominence in the U.K. To some, it’s a bit of a laugh. Ndiweni insists that it has to be taken seriously.
“I honestly thought it'd just be a bit of a farce when I first did it,” he said. “But it's becoming a big thing, and people are taking it seriously. It's good for players who are on the cusp of being pro, potentially, to get, like, a good profile.”
Plus, hanging out with YouTubers and streamers is admittedly cool.
“They were so nice. Even though the managers are characters, they treat their players very, very well,” Ndiweni said.
Ohio State University Navigating NCAA eligibility process
America had always been an option for Ndiweni. A lot of English footballers, these days, keep it in the back of their minds. If the whole professional thing didn’t work out immediately, he told himself, then he could go to university in the U.S., get a degree, and play football. And maybe, just maybe, there would be a chance for another crack at the professional game.
Even if it seemed a last resort, the emails were blasted off to pretty much every top collegiate program. Ohio State showed some interest. And that’s when the real work started. Ndiweni knew he wanted to come to the U.S. to play football. What he didn’t quite know was how tricky it would be to get there, especially sorting his eligibility.
“I had to fill in loads of forms with the NCAA. They asked for everything, like bank statements,” he recalled. “They dug deep into everything, contracts and stuff, and then they ended up coming up with the decision that I was able to play.”
In the end, an agency helped facilitate it all. He knew for about a year that he was going to be playing soccer in the Big Ten Conference, week-in, week-out. Still, the paperwork took months. He was preliminarily accepted in January. The confirmation that permitted his move to Ohio came through about a month before the college season was due to start.