Tomi Ameobi, middle child in family of English footballers, shines in Edmonton
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Version 0 of 1. In English football, the name Ameobi is synonymous with one club. Between them, Shola, 33, and Sammy, 23, have a combined total of 26 years playing on Tyneside (18 professionally). The youngest, whose contract is up in the summer, is still on the books at Newcastle and adding to that total. But for middle brother Tomi – who admits that he, too, always wanted to play for his boyhood club – his career has taken him a little further afield than the NE postcode. “Growing up, I wanted to be able to play for Newcastle like my older brother,” he said. “Things didn’t work out that way, but I’m just really thankful to God for the way my career has panned out, because there are things off the pitch that I don’t think I would have learned if I’d have stayed in Newcastle.” Since turning professional, in 2007, Tomi Ameobi, 26, has featured for 11 different teams in four different countries. He is currently playing for Canadian side FC Edmonton of the North American Soccer League. Edmonton, Ameobi said, is first city where he has felt at home in many years. “I don’t know what it is about new places and experiences,” he said. “I’m a bit of a free spirit when it comes to new cultures; I just love them.” Unlike his brothers, Ameobi was released from Newcastle’s academy, aged 15, moving away from home to join the youth setup at Leeds United. In Yorkshire – the last place he admits to truly feeling settled – the striker failed to make an impression in the first team; he was sent out on loan to Scunthorpe United, before making a permanent move to Doncaster Rovers, in 2008. Rovers would also opt to loan out Ameobi – he would have spells at Grimsby and Mansfield during his only season at the club – and after 12 months he was released, joining Conference side Forest Green Rovers for the following season. “I always felt like I was hopping from place to place and couldn’t find my feet,” he said. “I didn’t know which way my career was going to go – whether I would have to drop out, go back into education, or whether football was still for me.” It was during this testing period that faith played a big part in his decision to remain in football, Ameobi said. With his father working as a pastor at a church in Newcastle until his retirement this year, the striker said that he has always been around the church – though his ties to Christianity were driven more by personal experiences after he moved away from home, rather than something pushed upon him by his parents, Ameobi said. In May 2011, having spent an injury-hit season at lower league Whitley Bay, a chance phone call offered Ameobi the opportunity to play in Iceland over the summer months. It was moving abroad, he said, that helped him realize, “Wow, this is my job … this is what I have to do for a living.” Having taken the offer to join second division BÍ/Bolungarvík, Ameobi said that he was surprised at how comfortable the move felt. “My family’s background is African, so I’ve grown up with two cultures,” he said. “[That] helped me settle a lot quicker than a lot of the other guys who went out there.” There were, however, some differences that took some getting used to. “I had a bit of a nightmare because, stupidly, I decided not to put up blinds in my bedroom,” he laughed. “So, [at times] it was daylight constantly.” There were also days when Ameobi would only see just a few hours of sunlight, which helped him to discover the different approaches to football elsewhere in the world. “A lot of teams actually trained in the evening; whereas I was used to training in first thing in the morning,” he said. “The tempo they played at, the tempo they trained at … there was a heck of a lot more traveling to do for games – so it was quite a big adjustment for me at the time.” Ameobi said that his game – “more of a runner” than Shola, always in admiration of Sammy’s quick feet – developed significantly by leaving England and getting regular playing time. He would score 11 goals in 22 games for BÍ/Bolungarvík; spend a second season at another Icelandic club, Grindavík; and move to Finnish club Vaasan Palloseura (VPS) for the 2013 season, helping them qualify for Europe. It was while in Scandinavia that Ameobi first heard teammates Karsten Smith, currently of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, and Jordan Seabrook, who is still with VPS, talk of the NASL. Similar to when he left for Iceland, the striker would find himself back playing with Whitley Bay after his season with VPS. He would again receive an out-of-the-blue phone call from his agent, who asked if he would like to have a trial with a club in the American-Canadian league. Having first heard of the NASL just a couple of weeks earlier, Ameobi would be on a plane “within a couple of days.” “I think I’m used to it now,” he said. “When I first moved away from home I was 15, so I’m used to being away for long stretches.” Now in his second season with Edmonton – the first time he has been at a club for more than a year since his days at Leeds – Ameobi said that he has found a place that brings together what he is looking for both in life and in football. When speaking of home, he joked that he would regularly get noticed in Newcastle because of his brothers, who he is close to but he does not believe he looks alike. In Edmonton, though, the name only occasionally resonates in football circles; he’s never had anyone stop him on the street, for example. On the field, the striker, who has scored 12 goals since joining the Canadian club, said that he found a league that is “a lot different from what I knew”: a greater emphasis on athleticism and speed than he experienced during his time in Europe. Off the field, Ameobi has found other comforters, too. When he moved to the city, he opted to room with teammates rather than find his own place. Ameobi still lives with defender Edson Edward and a midfielder and fellow Brit, Ritchie Jones, which he said has helped with settling in. On weekends – when football does not interfere with scheduling – Ameobi also attends church, with Edward and Edmonton players Kareem Moses and Matt Van Oekel also in attendance. (They also have a chaplain who visits the club on a weekly basis.) “What was a big thing for me was that I managed to find a church,” he said. “I think that as a player, the worst thing you can do is have football on your mind the whole day. … So I think it’s a nice change of scenery. There aren’t many Christians out here, so it’s a little piece of home that I’ve managed to find in Edmonton.” Every week, Ameobi phones home for updates on the family of six. Usually, he said, the topic is discussion is Newcastle first, careers second. For updates on the latter, he only has to flick on the television to watch Shola and Sammy’s highlights from the previous week – something, Ameobi said, that no matter where he has been in the world and what point in his career it has been, has always been there for him. “Seeing those guys play in the top league in the world is a great incentive for me to become better as a player,” he said. “They give me all the motivation I need.” |