Ex-Newcastle striker Nile Ranger admits regret over career: ‘I was wild and messed up’

Former Newcastle United striker Nile Ranger has admitted that he was “too unruly” to become a top footballer, conceding that he “messed it all up”.

Ranger was tipped highly as a youngster, making his senior debut as a 17-year-old and signing a five-and-a-half year contract at St James’ Park while still a teenager.

But he left the club in 2013 amid issues off the pitch, which became a theme of his career. The 33-year-old served time in prison for fraud in 2017 having been sentenced to 11 weeks in a Young Offenders Institute for a robbery at the age of 15.

And Ranger, now playing for Kettering Town in the seventh tier of English football, feels that he should have made more of his talent.

“Teammates, friends and managers would say: ‘Nile, your chances are going to run out’,” Ranger told BBC Sport. “I wouldn’t listen. I was wild, wild, wild.

“I know I have baggage. If I had behaved I would have stayed at the top, but I was too unruly. I had a decent career. I was on decent money and then I messed it all up.”

After leaving Newcastle, Ranger had stints at Swindon, Blackpool and Southend. He was part of the England squad that finished as runners up at the Uefa European Under-19 Championship in 2009.