Fallen ex-Premier League star nets dramatic extra-time FA Cup winner

Nile Ranger, the one-time wonderkid who fell from grace, was back at centre stage on Saturday night after helping Kettering stun neighbours and rivals Northampton in round one of the FA Cup.

The 33-year-old former Newcastle striker rose highest to head a winner as the seventh-tier Poppies came from behind to beat their League One rivals and defy a 79-place gulf in the pyramid.

Ranger, who was once in the Premier League with the Magpies and has also played for the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Blackpool, last year claimed he would be as good as Erling Haaland if he has played his cards right in his career.

But a number of off-field issues have distracted from his football and he is now lining up for Kettering, though grabbed headlines for the right reasons on Saturday.

The achievement was a far cry from previous arrests and other off-field problems that he has struggled with away from football.

Having featured for the likes of Crystal Palace and Southampton in his youth career, Ranger joined the Newcastle academy and went onto play 62 times for the club, including 26 times in the Premier League. 

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Nile Ranger claims he would be as good as Erling Haaland if he had 'behaved and eaten better'... as the ex-Newcastle wonderkid opens up on a troubled career that has seen him serve jail time twice and battle a gambling addiction

He would, however, have issues outside of football during his career, including making homophobic comments on social media, being arrested on more than one occasion and charges of criminal damage and common assault - the last of which was in 2013.

Now 33, he has also featured for the likes of Swindon, Blackpool and Southend in his career, and left Boreham Wood in 2022. He would, however, appear for Kettering in a league match in September, signing a deal with the club.

When he broke into Newcastle's first team at the age of 18 in 2009, Ranger was one of the hottest striking prospects in English football as he played an important role in their Championship title triumph under Chris Hughton in 2009-10.

His off-field troubles, however, included serving two jail terms, a battle against a gambling addiction, while he has been released by numerous clubs due to disciplinary issues.

'I made my bed and now I have to lie in it,' he told The Athletic last year. 'I feel frustrated. I know what I can do but it's deeper than that because I've had so many chances.

'I didn't take in the advice. I should be minimum Championship right now. I shouldn't be having problems but I didn't listen.

'If I added nutrition to my game and behaviour, I'm Haaland. But I didn't want to listen. I thought I knew it all. Every club I've had, even as an adult, my mum has had to come in — because they respect her — to see if it could work as a last throw of the dice.'

Ranger's charge sheet includes assault, being drunk and disorderly, street robbery, an FA fine for a homophobic tweet in 2012, criminal damage, conspiracy to defraud and commit money laundering, while he was also found not guilty in a rape trial in 2014.

Elsewhere, he has also struggled with a lack of discipline and saw the dream of a professional contract at Southampton ended when he stole a significant amount of kit from the club and was subsequently kicked out.

Meanwhile, when he was at Newcastle, Ranger developed a gambling addiction that got out of hand, before interventions from chairman Mike Ashley and then-managing director Derek Llambias, along with his mother.

A Connor Johnson own goal had put Northampton in front in Satuday's game, but Luca Miller levelled before Ranger sent the 1,500 travelling fans wild. 'This is so special,' said Ranger, a former £10,000-a-week prodigy at St James's Park.

Ranger said: 'I'm trying to be humble. I've gone down a level to show I'm hungry and that I can still do it.'