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.