When Gael Bigirimana joined Newcastle United as a teenager from Coventry City in the summer of 2012, hopes were high that the Magpies had landed one of the most promising young players in English football.

Bigirimana joined Newcastle having just been named the EFL Apprentice of the Year and quickly made an impression at first-team level as Alan Pardew's side juggled Premier League and Europa League football.

But for a multitude of reasons, things never quite worked out at St James' Park and his career since has been an incredible mix of trophy-winning highs and desperate lows which saw him rely on benefit income during the Coronavirus pandemic.

It is a career that has taken him from Scotland to Belfast, with spells in Solihull, Tanzania, as well as an Africa Cup of Nations campaign with Burundi and a failed transfer move to Croatia along the way, too.

Now 31, Bigirimana has found peace and stability in Northern Ireland, where he captained Dungannon Swifts to...