20-11-2020, 18:47
He's 6'2" and once scored 6 goals in 11 games for England U-19. Alan Shearer handed him at trophy when manager at Newcastle United as most promising player and he was picked in the first team.
He's now 29 and has scored only 24 goals during his entire EFL and Premiership career. He's playing for Spalding United. Scored on his debut. He'd almost certainly do a good job for any lower league side prepared to take a real punt that they could keep him somewhere near the straight and narrow.
But he has been a very bad boy indeed and the police always have an eye out for him:-
In 2007, at the age of 15, sentenced to 11 weeks in a Young Offenders Institute after being convicted of participating in street robbery in Muswell Hill, London.
In May 2011 questioned by Newcastle after posing with a replica gun in a photograph.
On 27 August 2011, he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a man in Newcastle city centre, leaving the victim unconscious in the street. He was subsequently dropped to Newcastle United's reserve team. He was found not guilty of the charge in October 2012.
In October 2011 he was charged with being drunk and disorderly in Newcastle's Cathedral Square. The charge came only days after he had been reinstated to Newcastle United's first-team training after a three-month exile in the club's reserves.
In March 2012, he was fined by The FA for making homophobic comments on social networking website Twitter.
In the early hours of 23 September 2012, police were called to a house in Enfield, north London after reports of a disturbance. The front door of the property was badly damaged and he was arrested at the scene and later charged with criminal damage. The charge was dropped that November after the court accepted his explanation that he had damaged the door after fearing his girlfriend was being kidnapped.
On 25 January 2013, arrested on suspicion of rape in a Newcastle hotel room. In connection with the same alleged offence charged with rape on 8 July 2013. On 4 March 2014 he was cleared of the charge at Newcastle Crown Court.
On 14 March 2013, charged with common assault after an incident in Newcastle city centre.
On 23 March 2014, arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage to a taxi in Liverpool. He later pleaded guilty to criminal damage and was fined £1,000 and was ordered to pay compensation to the taxi driver for breaking a window. Said that he was enraged by being called a rapist by the driver.
On 28 April 2014, charged with criminal damage after an incident at a block of flats in Swindon on 13 April. He was later fined for damage to the door of his flat in relation to this incident which was captured on CCTV, in an incident where he additionally appeared to strike his female companion three times in the face.
In May 2014, found not guilty of being drunk in charge of his vehicle, after being found asleep in the driver's seat of his car on the M4 motorway.
In December 2016, charged with conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, in respect of offences alleged to have been committed in February 2015. In January 2017, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud at Wood Green Crown Court. On 23 May 2017, he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
On 11 August 2017, he was released after 10 weeks of his sentence due to "his consistently excellent custodial behaviour", remaining under curfew for the next five weeks.
SO I ASSUME YOU'VE GUESSED WHO HE IS BY NOW - NILE RANGER.
If I said we'd just signed him you'd have a breakdown. We haven't. The question is do you believe in redemption? He loves football. There's a good boy somewhere in there trying to struggle out of the image he's created for himself. If someone at our level believed in him and gave him a chance he probably could still rip teams apart. I'd love to see it happen and have him make news for all the right reasons, but his bad boy record, missing a few training sessions then walking out on football altogether have scared everyone off, until Spalding's manager held out his hand that is. Not surprisingly it is a black hand. There aren't that many black managers to take that chance. I wish I had the courage to say we should sign him. There are too many lives that go nowhere. Nile has been the author his own destruction all the way down the line, as you might say, but I wish he'd pick up a pen and start writing himself a new and better chapter, so that a bit bigger club might take a chance.
He's now 29 and has scored only 24 goals during his entire EFL and Premiership career. He's playing for Spalding United. Scored on his debut. He'd almost certainly do a good job for any lower league side prepared to take a real punt that they could keep him somewhere near the straight and narrow.
But he has been a very bad boy indeed and the police always have an eye out for him:-
In 2007, at the age of 15, sentenced to 11 weeks in a Young Offenders Institute after being convicted of participating in street robbery in Muswell Hill, London.
In May 2011 questioned by Newcastle after posing with a replica gun in a photograph.
On 27 August 2011, he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a man in Newcastle city centre, leaving the victim unconscious in the street. He was subsequently dropped to Newcastle United's reserve team. He was found not guilty of the charge in October 2012.
In October 2011 he was charged with being drunk and disorderly in Newcastle's Cathedral Square. The charge came only days after he had been reinstated to Newcastle United's first-team training after a three-month exile in the club's reserves.
In March 2012, he was fined by The FA for making homophobic comments on social networking website Twitter.
In the early hours of 23 September 2012, police were called to a house in Enfield, north London after reports of a disturbance. The front door of the property was badly damaged and he was arrested at the scene and later charged with criminal damage. The charge was dropped that November after the court accepted his explanation that he had damaged the door after fearing his girlfriend was being kidnapped.
On 25 January 2013, arrested on suspicion of rape in a Newcastle hotel room. In connection with the same alleged offence charged with rape on 8 July 2013. On 4 March 2014 he was cleared of the charge at Newcastle Crown Court.
On 14 March 2013, charged with common assault after an incident in Newcastle city centre.
On 23 March 2014, arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage to a taxi in Liverpool. He later pleaded guilty to criminal damage and was fined £1,000 and was ordered to pay compensation to the taxi driver for breaking a window. Said that he was enraged by being called a rapist by the driver.
On 28 April 2014, charged with criminal damage after an incident at a block of flats in Swindon on 13 April. He was later fined for damage to the door of his flat in relation to this incident which was captured on CCTV, in an incident where he additionally appeared to strike his female companion three times in the face.
In May 2014, found not guilty of being drunk in charge of his vehicle, after being found asleep in the driver's seat of his car on the M4 motorway.
In December 2016, charged with conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, in respect of offences alleged to have been committed in February 2015. In January 2017, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud at Wood Green Crown Court. On 23 May 2017, he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
On 11 August 2017, he was released after 10 weeks of his sentence due to "his consistently excellent custodial behaviour", remaining under curfew for the next five weeks.
SO I ASSUME YOU'VE GUESSED WHO HE IS BY NOW - NILE RANGER.
If I said we'd just signed him you'd have a breakdown. We haven't. The question is do you believe in redemption? He loves football. There's a good boy somewhere in there trying to struggle out of the image he's created for himself. If someone at our level believed in him and gave him a chance he probably could still rip teams apart. I'd love to see it happen and have him make news for all the right reasons, but his bad boy record, missing a few training sessions then walking out on football altogether have scared everyone off, until Spalding's manager held out his hand that is. Not surprisingly it is a black hand. There aren't that many black managers to take that chance. I wish I had the courage to say we should sign him. There are too many lives that go nowhere. Nile has been the author his own destruction all the way down the line, as you might say, but I wish he'd pick up a pen and start writing himself a new and better chapter, so that a bit bigger club might take a chance.