Shola Ameobi is still making Newcastle fans smile three years after leaving the club

Shola Ameobi, as far as superfan Randall Bell is concerned, doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

The Newcastle fan, whose Twitter bio declares him as “the Shola Ameobi appreciation society”, watched the local player accrue 14 years worth of appearances for the Toon – something Ameobi never even received a testimonial for.

But coupled with the work he still does for Newcastle and the appearances he made against Sunderland that saw him dubbed the “Mackem slayer”, Randall just gained another reason to be a fan.

The 30-year-old now owns a pair of his signed boots after a Twitter exchange with Ameobi’s current club Notts County.

After seeing that Ameobi had been meeting some fans, and Notts County were offering more similar opportunities, Randall had to get involved.

For a while it didn’t look like he’d have any luck.

But someone at the club was paying attention, and Ameobi was about to prove he’s still got a lot of time for his Geordie fans.

It took around an hour for Randall to acquire the necessary amount of retweets, and sure enough it wasn’t long before Ameobi was signing some boots.

“I’ve been a big fan of Shola for years, I see him as a sort of unsung hero for his time at Newcastle. Not many Newcastle players can say they have scored against Barcelona!” Randall said.

And the early birthday present came as a bit of a surprise.

“I sent my tweet to Notts County a bit tongue in cheek. I know a lad who managed to get a signed card from Alan Shearer one birthday so I thought why not! Tbh I really wasn’t expecting a reply,” he said.

That’s the power of Twitter.