Former Newcastle wonderkid Nile Ranger has opened up on his troubled career and insisted he still has a desire to return to the game.

Ranger, now 32, has been a free agent since leaving National League side Boreham Wood in the summer of 2022 after playing just four minutes for the club.

But when he broke into Newcastle’s first team at the age of 18 in 2009, he 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.

Unfortunately, Ranger’s career has been blighted by off-field troubles which has included serving two jail terms, a battle against a gambling addiction, while he has been released by numerous clubs due to disciplinary issues. 

And Ranger – who has also represented Swindon Town, Southend United, Blackpool, Barnsley, Sheffield Wednesday and Spalding United during his chaotic time in the game – admitted he has been through a lot and has plenty of regrets.

Nile Ranger has opened up on his troubled career and insisted he has plenty of regrets 

Ranger broke into the Newcastle team as a teenager but has faced several off-field problems

‘There needs to be a movie on my life,’ he told The Athletic. ‘Because it’s a real one, it’s an interesting one.

‘I have players coming to me saying, “What happened? What’s wrong with you? With your talent, what are you doing?”. I made my bed and now I have to lie in it. 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. 

‘She is my life coach, she’s probably disappointed deep down I didn’t really go higher… but she always says,”listen, we had a blast, no matter what”.’

Ranger once counted the likes of Hatem Ben Arfa, Kevin Nolan and Fabricio Coloccini among his team-mates in a career which spanned 26 Premier League appearances, with the striker earning £10,000-a-week while with Newcastle.

However, his list of misdemeanours does not make for good reading. 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. 

Ranger, now 32, has been a free agent since leaving Boreham Wood in the summer of 2022

He claimed if he had ‘behaved and eaten better’ he would be like Man City star Erling Haaland

Meanwhile, when he was at Newcastle, Rangers developed a gambling addiction that got out of hand.

He added: ‘I was doing some mad things. It was bad what I was doing. The chairman (Mike Ashley) tried to help and to stop me from going to casinos. I was going to casinos every single day. I tried it, I started getting hooked. 

‘Derek Llambias (managing director at the time) phoned me one day and said, “We need to have a meeting”. He said, “We’re taking it out of your hands — we’ve been hearing you’re going to casinos every day. You’re banned as we own them… you’ll thank me in the long run”. 

‘I was borrowing money off people, including Coloccini. One time, my mum and my sister said, “You’ve done £32,000 in the space of two months”. That’s when it hit me hard. My mum said I had to stop.

‘I’m an addictive personality. I got addicted to it, that feeling of winning would be outrageous, that adrenaline was crazy. 

‘I thank God for my mum because there were times I was getting big money each month and she was like, “I’m taking this”. She dealt with everything.’

Ranger’s first brush with the law came when he was sentenced to 11 weeks in a Young Offenders Institute in 2007 after being convicted of participating in a street robbery in London. 

In 2017, he was then jailed for eight months – of which he served just 10 weeks – after being involved in an online banking fraud while playing for Blackpool, and the striker expressed his contrition when reflecting on his past behaviour.

He said: ‘Some things shouldn’t have happened. When I was young, the robberies, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt or give anyone trauma, I was just following the crowd.

‘With that fraud, I feel like it’s not physical but I lined something up where someone can make money from doing that and it’s not right because that can give someone trauma as well.

‘It (jail) was terrible, it was 23 hours locked in your cell, it’s shocking. I knew a lot of people in there. Jail’s not for me, I’m not built for jail. You have too much time to reflect. I shouldn’t have gone to jail for that. The judge didn’t listen to me.’

Since being released by Southend in 2018 for disciplinary issues – where Ranger scored 10 goals in 49 appearances – he has played just once for Spalding United in the Northern Premier League Division One South East, 12 minutes in a second spell for Southend and that four-minute stint at Boreham Wood almost two years ago.

However, the 32-year-old – who became a father two years ago – was insistent he still has plenty to give on an off the pitch.

Ranger enjoyed a solid two years at Southend but was released due to disciplinary issues

He admitted he has regrets about his behaviour but outlined a desire to return to the game

He added: ‘People can learn from me. I played in every league — I’ve been at the highest level, I’ve been there, I can help the kids. It’s not the end of me. 

‘I love football, there’s still opportunity but there’s more to life than just football. I was just not living like a professional footballer, I ate lots of sweets and things like that. 

‘I’ve never drank or gone out before games but I’ve stayed up late all night playing FIFA with my friends. But I thought I could do it. That mentality is f***ed up because you need sleep.

‘I’ve had a blast, it’s been eventful, but where I have regrets is it was never about my talent… it was my behaviour.’