![\"Kallum](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_GettyImages-2275449850.jpg\")
<\/p>\nKelly N’Mai was 10 years old when he got the chance to live out the childhood dream of almost every little boy growing up in the Netherlands. Invited to spend four weeks training with Ajax, there was only one problem: he was booked on a flight to Manchester the day after it ended to begin a new life in Salford.<\/p>\n
N’Mai went along anyway and felt his trial had gone well at the biggest club in the country and one of the world’s best hotbeds of young talent. But he never did hear back. His parents had decided they were leaving, and that was that; the dream was dead.<\/p>\n
They had decided to leave the small Dutch city of Almere for the benefits of a better education system in England, and N’Mai, along with his older brother and his younger brother and sister, had to go along with it.<\/p>\n
“At that age, it’s more no [I wasn’t happy about it] because obviously the dream is to play for what was the best club in the Netherlands,” N’Mai told the Manchester Evening News this week.<\/p>\n
“But now that I’m thinking of it, it would have been selfish to be angry that we moved here. Now my siblings are doing well, so all is good.”<\/p>\n
Kelly, now 22, is also doing well. Tonight, he will be part of the Salford City side bidding to reach Wembley and the League Two play-off final. Having lived in the city for 12 years, he is the pride of the club’s academy and the second leg of the semi-final against Grimsby will be his 100th appearance for his hometown club. The Ammies take a 2-1 lead into the home leg.<\/p>\n
He speaks with a Salford twang, still lives down the street from the club’s Littleton Road training ground and has roots all across the area. After moving from Almere, he attended Marlborough Road Primary School and then All Hallows RC High School. His footballing journey took him to Broughton United.<\/p>\n
“I think we had some family here who helped us settle down,” he said of the decision to relocate to Salford. “My auntie lived not far from Albert Park and we moved in there for a few days to help us settle down while our house was getting sorted.<\/p>\n
“[I settled] quite quickly, actually. Football helped me quite a lot in terms of it’s a universal language, because I didn’t speak the language, but when lunchtime comes and you play football, then you get comfortable with the people and then, before you know it, I start picking up the language and it took me a couple of months to learn the language.”<\/p>\n
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Salford City lead their League Two play-off semi-final 2-1 after winning at Grimsby on Sunday<\/p>\n
N’Mai was clearly a talented footballer. He had been in Almere City’s academy back home and after moving to Salford, soon signed on at Broughton, spending around six years with the grassroots club.<\/p>\n
His talent as a nippy and skilful winger caught the attention of scouts, and he spent time training with the academies of Manchester City<\/a> and Manchester United<\/a>.<\/p>\n He had three six-week trials with City, playing alongside the likes of Charlie McNeill and Micah Hamilton, yet never got taken on, but he had more success with United. A boyhood red, he spent a couple of years training with United at the age of 11 and 12, but never signed on at the club’s academy.<\/p>\n “It was training with them and playing games. I don’t know why I never signed, just good enough to be around it but not good enough to sign, I reckon,” he said.<\/p>\n “That’s probably where I had the most fun, training there two, three times a week and playing games and making the friends that I had, it was the best experience there.<\/p>\n “Towards the end, the season finished and then they told us we’ve enjoyed having you, but you\u2019re too small, like we don’t really see you making it into the first team.<\/p>\n “As I support United as well, it was tough, but I wasn’t too surprised because if they’d wanted to sign me, I would have signed.”<\/p>\n N’Mai did at least get the chance to train and play with some players who have gone on to have successful careers, forming a close relationship with Shola Shoretire, who now plays in the Netherlands, and training with a young Kobbie Mainoo.<\/p>\n “I still speak to Shola probably the most, but he left a couple of years back. He’s probably the one I speak to the most,” he said.<\/p>\n “They were a joke. Kobbie was unbelievable, and probably Shola. Those two were the standout players. Shola was playing up more time, and then Kobbie, a year below, was training with us.”<\/p>\n When N’Mai left United, he focused on football for his school, representing Salford School Boys and Broughton, but his chance to crack the professional game arrived when he was 16.<\/p>\n When Covid hit, Salford City were going through an academy restructuring, and as they came out the other side, they were short of players. A cohort from Broughton were invited down for trials.<\/p>\n Three of them signed scholarship terms. N’Mai, Ben Collins and Djavan ‘DJ’ Pedro. Gary Bowyer quickly spotted N’Mai’s talent despite his 5ft 6ins size marking him out as small in League Two.<\/p>\n N’Mai made his first start in two months at Grimsby on Sunday<\/p>\n His development stalled under Neil Wood and there were loans at Warrington Rylands and Chester, before a return to favour under current boss Karl Robinson.<\/p>\n N’Mai missed two months of action towards the end of the season through injury, but after a 27-minute runout on the final day, he was back in the team at Grimsby on Sunday for the first leg of their play-off semi-final, and while he might be small in stature, he has proven time and again that he can’t be intimidated in this league.<\/p>\n “I still think it’s very physical, you’ve got to battle, but I feel like once the defenders know you can battle, then it’s more what can you do on the ball, and that’s where your technical ability comes to show,” he said.<\/p>\n “I feel like defenders come into the game thinking I’m going to have to try and bully him, which is fair enough. But once they figure out it’s not going to work, then they need a different approach and then that’s when my technical belief comes to show.”<\/p>\n Asked to describe his game to those who haven’t seen him, he says: “I think the least you’re going to get from me is that I’m running hard and I’m working hard. When I’m on the ball, I try to entertain and beat my man and try to provide for my teammates, but I do like to get on the ball a lot, dribble a lot, but off the ball, you do know I’m going to work hard for my team.”<\/p>\n But plenty of people have now seen N’Mai, not least a steady stream of scouts who have flocked to the Peninsula Stadium this season. He remains under contract and there is hope an extension can be agreed, especially if the Ammies can finally crack League Two and earn promotion at the seventh attempt.<\/p>\n N’Mai makes little secret of his ambition, however, and for a footballer who has already has a taste of life at Ajax, City and United, that is not surprising.<\/p>\n![\"Kelly](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_GettyImages-2275506256.jpg\")
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