“Repent.” That is the full-page headline of an extensive report published by the British newspaper ‘The Sun’. The adjective summarizes the feeling of the sole protagonist of said journalistic piece: Nile Ranger (33 years old), a former footballer who rushed from the sports elite to the pit of prison. Seven years ago, in 2017, Ranger was locked up in Pentonville, a prison located in north London, after pleading guilty to committing bank fraud. Specifically, of swindling more than 2,000 pounds (about 2,500 euros) from a woman. That promising Newcastle striker who had played 26 games in the dazzling Premier League hit rock bottom. He went from training and playing with stars like Owen, Coloccini or Carroll to living with criminals, some of them dangerous criminals. Nile Ranger will once again have prominence on the grass. He currently plays for Kettering Town FC, a modest club in the semi-professional Southern Football League, and this Sunday they play in the second round of the FA Cup against Doncaster (a team from League 2, English fourth division). Ranger scored the winning goal in the previous tie against Northampton (League One, third division). The former Newcastle striker takes advantage of this fleeting return to the competitive scene to recount his terrible life and prison experience in ‘The Sun’. His statements are as sincere as they are harsh: “Prison is bad, and it is no place for those who have their heads on straight. And, of course, compared to those people I did have it. “For example, there was a guy who told me that he had cut off someone’s fingers and put them in the trunk of a car.” I heard people planning murders and armed robberies when they got out. And there were prisoners stabbed in the showers and drones carrying drugs and cell phones. “It was hell.” «There were cockroaches entering through the gaps in the walls and the cell door. We had to block them with towels and if you killed one cockroach, more of the eggs they laid would appear. There were also rats running around. It was disgusting. “The food was terrible. I’m sure the chicken was undercooked. I was locked up 23 hours a day and I took advantage of the time I spent outside my cell to exercise and shower. Some of the guards were arrogant, they wanted to make me feel inferior. They were jealous because I was a soccer player. But I didn’t engage in their provocations, I focused on getting out and I thought: ‘I’ll only be here for two or three months and I’ll play football again.'” And that’s how it was. Although he had been sentenced to serve eight months in prison—“I felt that the sentence was unfair.” There are people who have committed much worse crimes and have only received minor punishments. “I guess the judge had already decided, while having dinner with his wife the night before, that he was going to lock me up.” Ranger was released after 10 weeks for good behavior, although he had to wear an electronic bracelet to be monitored and reachable in all the time. As time passes, Rangers recognizes that he made a mistake and that he wasted his incredible talent. He is deeply sorry because he is aware that if he had worked hard he could have had a decent career in the Premier League. In the football elite.
#Cockroaches #rats #stabbings #showers #hell #footballer #prison
