We catch up with some of the Newcastle United youngsters to leave the club in recent years.
Former Newcastle United youth prospects Jak Alnwick and James Tavernier are currently playing their football for Scottish giants Rangers.
Tavernier ended his five-year stay on Tyneside with a move to Wigan Athletic in 2014. The right-back, 25, joined Rangers a year later and helped the Gers win promotion back into the Scottish Premiership last season.
Alnwick left the Magpies in 2015 after making eight senior appearances in seven years at the club. After impressing for Port Vale, the goalkeeper was signed by Rangers late in the January transfer window. He is still waiting to make his debut for 54-time league champions.
Ole Soderberg is another academy graduate to be playing outside of English football. The goalkeeper never quite recovered from his injury-stricken start to life at Newcastle, and was subsequently transferred to Norwegian side Molde. Soderberg, 26, now plays for Kalmar FF, who finished 6th in Swedish football’s top flight in 2016.
In 2010, Newcastle signed 18-year-old Joan Simun Edmusson from B68 Toftir. His stay in England would only last two years until Viking FK brought him to the Norwegian league. Since then, the winger has continued to improve with stints at AB, HB and Vejle Boldklub, before earning a big move to Odense BK in January of 2016.
On the same day that Kevin Keegan was brought back for his second spell in charge of the Toon, 17-year-old Hungarian Tamas Kadar arrived from Zalaegerszeg. Kadar would be released four years later after failing to make an impression at the North East club. The centre-back has since enjoyed a growing reputation in the game, which recently saw him snapped up by Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv.
Alan Pardew signed 18-year-old midfielder Mehdi Abeid from Lens in 2011. Like Kadar, the Algerian struggled to break into the Magpies’ first-team and would be let go four years later. Following time at Panathinaikos, Abeid’s form of Ligue 1 side Dijon FCO this season has seen him linked with a return to the Premier League.
Daniel Leadbitter and Remie Streete are among the former Newcastle youngsters to be playing their football in League One. Leadbitter, 25, has established himself as an important part of Darrell Clarke’s fast-rising Bristol Rovers side.
Streete had been ever-present for relegation-threatened Port Vale before suffering a suspected fractured leg in their 2-0 defeat to Millwall on Tuesday.
Brad Inman and Marcus Maddison are hoping to secure a League One play-off place with Peterborough United. Maddison was released by Newcastle in 2012, but following spells at St Johnstone and Gateshead, he is beginning to show real promise for the Posh. The attacking midfielder has provided 11 assists and 7 goals for his side this season.
Inman recently made his Peterborough debut after a broken leg kept him out for the opening half of the campaign.
Nile Ranger and Shane Ferguson will also be aiming to secure League One play-off spots with their respective sides. Ranger has netted three times for Phil Brown’s Southend United, while Ferguson recently signed a new deal with Millwall.
The former Newcastle youngsters who feature in League Two include the likes of Ryan Donaldson, Adam Campbell and Connor Newton.
Campbell was picked up by Notts County following his release from United in 2015. He has played 22 times this season, as he looks to help rescue Kevin Nolan’s side from dropping out of the division.
Donaldson and Newton both spent the 2015/6 campaign at Cambridge United. Newton is still a regular in the U’s midfield, while Donaldson has moved on to automatic promotion contenders Plymouth Argyle.
Kazenga Lua Lua, brother of Lomana, ended his six-year association with Newcastle in 2011 to sign for Brighton Hove Albion. He remains with the Seagulls, but was sent out on loan to fellow Championship side Queens Park Rangers in the January transfer window.
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