21-year-old striker breaks silence on Newcastle United contract decision after Champions League call-up

Ndiweni progressed through the ranks at Newcastle and made his Premier League debut as a late substitute in a 4-1 win over Chelsea at St James’ Park last season. The striker was also part of Newcastle’s Champions League squad for the 1-1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain.

Ndiweni spent the second half of the 2023-24 campaign on loan at Scottish third-tier side Anan Athletic before being released by Newcastle last summer. The club opted not to extend the striker’s professional contract, leaving him free to find a new club.

After trials with Gateshead and Blyth Spartans, the 21-year-old joined Northern Premier side Ashington before moving to Newcastle Blue Star in January.

Ndiweni has also recently become part of Baller League UK six-a-side on Sky Sports as part of the side ‘FC Rules the World’.

He marked his first goal in the Baller League with a celebration that paid homage to his former Newcastle teammate Alexander Isak.

Michael Ndiweni opens up about Newcastle United departure

It’s been a whirlwind 18 months for Ndiweni, having gone from making his Premier League debut and featuring in a Champions League squad to playing semi-professional and six-a-side football.

But after limited first-team experience and opportunities, Ndiweni felt the writing was on the wall when it came to leaving Newcastle last year.

Speaking to Location Football he said: “Personally, I probably did see it coming because we had discussions about loans to try and get my CV higher and at a better standard to potentially go onto another club.

“They’ll try their utmost best to get you the best football CV. Loan football at that time was probably the best to get another professional club. If a professional club comes to you from playing under-21s, they might not look at you, but if you’re playing first team football, you’ve got that first team experience to move on.”

Ndiweni had aimed to find a new professional club following his release from Newcastle, but with a move to the EFL or National League not forthcoming, the striker had to think outside of the box. While dropping to part-time football, Ndiweni has also taken up a football coaching role at NE Coaching Co in addition to his Baller League duties.

When asked about wanting to remain in professional football, Ndiweni added: “That’s what you think, but obviously football doesn’t work like that

“At the end of the day, football doesn’t work like that and people within football know that. I was hopeful, but when nothing came through, I wasn’t really surprised to be honest.”

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UEFA rules explain why Michael Ndiweni was included in Newcastle United’s Champions League squad v PSG

Ndiweni’s inclusion in Newcastle’s matchday squad against PSG, while a surprise, can be explained by UEFA’s squad rules and the fact Eddie Howe’s first-team squad was significantly depleted at the time.

While Premier League rules allow clubs to field any contracted player under the age of 21 without naming them in their first-team squad list, UEFA rules differ.

In the Champions League, 17 players can be named in the squad without any restrictions. Then, in order to name more players in their squad, clubs must include up to eight further homegrown players.

Of the eight homegrown players, at least four must be club-trained in order to name a full squad of 25. If a club are unable to fill the homegrown or club-trained player quotas, their squad sizes will be reduced accordingly.

Newcastle’s squad was limited to 24 players due to a lack of club-trained players. It saw senior pros such as Emil Krafth, Matt Ritchie, Javier Manquillo and Mark Gillespie miss out on a place in the squad.

But Newcastle were able to bolster their options by naming a ‘List B’ of Under-21s players that had been eligible to play for the club for an uninterrupted period of at least two years. New signings Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento couldn’t be named on the ‘List B’ despite being under 21, neither could any recent youth signings.

With Ndiweni progressing through Newcastle’s academy from a young age, he was eligible to be named in the ‘List B’ and subsequently called up to the squad for the PSG match.

Newcastle will have to consider these squad rules once again as they prepare to return to a UEFA competition next season.

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