'He used to play for Newcastle' - How former Premier League striker Michael Ndiweni found new football future at Ohio State

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.

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.

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.

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.

So far, the U.S. is treating him well. He still has to be careful with his accent. Some in Columbus simply don’t understand him. He has to tone it down a bit.

“Just imagine like you’re speaking in a job interview,” Ndiweni said.

He had to serve a suspension to start the season due to the fact that he made a professional appearance. However, since his debut on Sept. 29, things have gone well. The Buckeyes won the NCAA Tournament last year. This campaign, though, they have struggled.

But Ndiweni has gotten minutes here and there. He found the back of the net for the first time on Oct. 10 with a tidy finish from a tight angle against Indiana. There are still some teething issues, but Ndiweni has settled just fine - and has started four in a row.

He says he’s enjoying taking classes. Ndiweni took one A-Level in the UK, and got an A* in Business (the highest mark you can get in pre-university testing in the English school system). Being back in that routine for the first time in three years suits him just fine.

“School's not actually that bad,” he said. I actually enjoy going to school. I enjoy learning. That's one of the other reasons why I wanted to come here - to get an education. You just never know what happens in life, even after football.”

He’s also still a bit starry-eyed by the vibe of it all, strolling around the campus of one of the biggest state schools in the country.

“Going to school, it's just different. When I first got here, I was like, ‘This is a movie. It's just like the movies that you watch in the UK’,” Ndiweni said.

But Ndiweni is clear on one point: he still reluctantly calls it “soccer.”

“It hurts every time. But I have to,” Ndiweni said.

He misses a Sunday roast. He craves a jacket potato with cheese and baked beans, too. The rest of the team make fun of him for English food. He doesn’t care. And there have been parts of Newcastle’s Champions League schedule that he’s been unable to watch, as Ohio State’s training clashes with the midweek fixtures.

Yet the team has been welcoming. There are Everton fans, Chelsea fans and Liverpool fans. They understand the game, and get British culture, at least to a degree. That has certainly helped. “Within the team, the culture is similar to English culture. They all support English teams,” he said. “I’ve got one teammate and he supports Everton. I'm like, why would you support Everton in America?”

And still, almost every day, he gets asked about playing for Newcastle. By now, he doesn’t mind it. That’s because he thinks about it too, and how, now, he might just be on track to return.

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