I won a World Cup while I was at Crystal Palace – now I’m playing with YouTubers at 25
A Crystal Palace wonderkid and Under-17 World Cup winner is among the players in the second season of the Baller League - but how did he get there?
England’s Under-17 World Cup winning team of 2017 was filled with players who would go on to enjoy big careers. Phil Foden was in the side, as was Morgan Gibbs-White, Marc Guéhi, Calum Hudson-Odoi and many more. Most of the team went on to big things – but one player, who was touted as Crystal Palace’s answer to Dele Alli, is now playing alongside YouTubers at the age of just 25.
Nya Kirby was a second-half substitute during England’s 5-2 win in the final over Spain in Kolkata, and a member of the Under-19s team that played in the 2018 European Championship. At domestic level, he was knocking on the door of Palace’s first team and generating hype. So what happened to Kirby, and why is he now dividing his time between the lower rungs of non-league and playing six-a-side football with content creators?
What happened to former Crystal Palace wonderkid Nya Kirby?
Although Kirby rose to prominence with Crystal Palace, that wasn’t where the Islington-born attacking midfielder started out – he kicked off his academy career at Tottenham Hotspur and performed well enough to attract the attention of Chelsea at the age of just 16.
The proposed move to Stamford Bridge fell through after Spurs threatened to report their cross-capital rivals for making an illegal approach for Kirby, and Arsenal were reportedly sniffing around as well – but in the end, it was Palace that Kirby committed to as a teenager, just before he went to the Under-17 World Cup in India and became a champion.
As Kirby continued his progress through the age group ranks with England, he made waves at Selhurst Park, too. Sports Gazette compared him to a young Dele Alli due to his technical quality and creativity, and in an interview with that outlet Kirby laid out his simple aims for the future: “I dream of becoming a star one day.”
The first step towards the senior game came with a loan spell at Blackpool in the 2018/19 season, for whom he scored his first ever professional goal. It would also, improbably, be his last.
At Bloomfield Road, Kirby drew generally warm reviews across his 11 appearances, looking lively and dangerous even if the end product wasn’t quite there. Somehow, that end product remained elusive for as long as Kirby remained in the professional game – which wasn’t a great deal longer.
Kirby was still a part of Palace’s squad in 2019/20 but never played a game, eventually making his only appearance for the Eagles in September 2020 against Bournemouth in the EFL Cup. A brief loan spell at Tranmere Rovers failed to ignite the youngster’s spark and at the end of the 2021/22 season, Kirby was released on a free transfer having played just nine senior games in three seasons.
Injuries don’t seem to have been a significant factor in his decline, nor are there any stories of off-field issues in the public domain. Kirby simply seemed to fall away quietly. Still, it was something of a surprise that he couldn’t even find a club to play for after leaving Palace.
Kirby disappeared from the game entirely for a year, and only he knows why he drifted out of the game – but he didn’t re-emerge until 2023, when he signed for National League North outfit Oxford City. In 2024, he dropped down to the seventh tier, signing with Isthmian League outfit AFC Croydon Athletic, for whom he still plays. But that isn’t the only football Kirby is involved in…
Will the Baller League give Kirby a second chance at stardom?
Kirby may have fallen away from the public eye in recent years, but he’ll be back in it now – playing in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers in the second UK season of the Baller League.
The streamer-led six-a-side tournament features former pros and academy prospects playing alongside YouTubers and content creators. Those involved in the second edition, which gets underway this autumn, range from Joleon Lescott to Henri Lansbury to Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, who has recently been released from prison after a conviction for drug smuggling.
Kirby is perhaps the biggest name on SDS FC – managed by Sharmarke ‘Sharky’ Mohamud, a successful YouTube personality. It’s a far cry from playing under the tutelage of Roy Hodgson or Patrick Vieira, as he was at Palace, but it’s a chance for him to show off his skills in front of a broader audience for the first time in years.
Whether that will lead to further opportunities within the game remains to be seen – but perhaps his involvement will put him back into the limelight, remind viewers of his undoubted talents, and perhaps even provide some answers as to why a player with the world at his feet almost fell of the face of the footballing planet by the time he turned 25. There is, if nothing else, still time for Kirby to make a different kind of mark in the Baller League.