February 18, 2021 5.02 pm This story is over 36 months old

Controversial striker leaves Spalding United after just one game

He will be heading back to the EFL

By Local Democracy Reporter

Nile Ranger, the 29-year-old controversial former Premier League striker, has left Spalding United after just one appearance to rejoin League Two side Southend United.

Ranger, who only joined the Northern Premier League Division One South East club in October, scored in his only competitive appearance at the Lincolnshire side.

The goal came in a 3-3 draw with Belper Town on October 31, before the season was postponed due to coronavirus lockdown.

He will now look to revitalise his professional career in the EFL, with Southend United, where he spent two years between 2016 and 2018.

The 29-year-old has joined Southend on an incentivised month-to-month contract.

Ranger is a player who has been hailed for his abilities, but criticised for his conduct, regularly having run-ins with the law during his life.

When he was just 15-years-old, the former Newcastle United striker spent 11 weeks in a Young Offenders Institute for a robbery charge.

As well as this, he has been charged with being drunk and disorderly, assaulting a man in Newcastle, and served a prison sentence in 2016 for conspiracy to defraud and commit money laundering.

Ranger previously tweeted denying rumours that he was joining Southend, but the deal has been finalised.

He has been included in their 25-man squad for the rest of the season.

https://twitter.com/NilePowerRanger/status/1341092097840001027

Southend boss Mark Molesley said that Nile Ranger has been training with the Shrimpers for two months to keep himself fit.

Molesley said: “Nile has still got to earn the right to play for this club and he knows that himself. Everyone has to earn the right.

“He has got to repay the faith I have shown him on the pitch, and I am excited to see a fully fit Nile play for this football club.”