Matty Longstaff’s perpetual positivity remains.
There have been what the younger Longstaff brother describes as “dark moments” over the past three years — anxiety about his future after being released by Newcastle last summer, a long recovery from injury, “mixed feelings” about his former club’s takeover given its impact on his prospects, and an admission he should have left Tyneside in 2020 when he was courted by overseas clubs.
Yet over a 45-minute Zoom call from Toronto, the 24-year-old is sanguine. Rather than wallow in his misfortune after going 439 days without a competitive appearance due to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, or dwell on being without a club for 243 days after his Newcastle deal expired, Longstaff reverted to being a fan of the club he grew up supporting.
Wearing a bucket hat, he found himself among thousands of Geordies in Trafalgar Square ahead of Newcastle’s first cup final in 24 years, he partied in Dortmund, and he almost shed tears of joy when, surrounded by his family, he watched Sean, his older brother, score against Paris Saint-Germain on that famous St James’ Park night.
“The biggest thing was that, for six months, I got to become a ‘normal person’,” says Longstaff. “That was an unbelievable mid-career experience for me, where I was just a Newcastle supporter and my brother’s biggest fan. When he scored against PSG, I celebrated just as much as I celebrate my own goals.
“I’m not saying I want to do that again — I don’t — but not having the pressure of football… It’s the most relaxed I’ve ever been and I got to experience some of my most enjoyable moments.”
Before 2024, Longstaff had played only 53 senior games, and the last of his 20 Newcastle appearances came on January 18, 2021.
From the ecstasy of scoring against Manchester United on his Premier League debut and achieving overnight cult-hero status, Longstaff’s career in England lurched from one hardship to another. Now he is feeling the benefits of renewal in MLS with Toronto FC, having made 40 appearances this season.
“I’ve always wanted to go abroad,” Longstaff says. “Once I knew my career was done at Newcastle, I thought, ‘I want to try something different’.
“For a club like Toronto, with so much history and a Geordie manager (John Herdman), to present me with this opportunity, everything aligned. I wanted to get away and rebuild myself, and see where I can go from here. It’s been just what I needed.”
GO DEEPER
Debuts don’t come much better than Matty Longstaff’s against Man Utd – it’s a shame he’s barely been since
“I just heard the big roar of, ‘Shoot!’ from 52,000 people,” Longstaff says. “From shooting to celebrating, it’s all a big blur.”
It is five years since one of the Premier League’s most memorable debuts. Aged 19 years and 199 days, Longstaff was handed his top-flight bow on October 6, 2019, starting alongside his brother in Newcastle’s midfield against Manchester United at St James’.
With the game goalless after 72 minutes, Longstaff’s powerful shot provided the “indescribable” moment which propelled him into Geordie folklore.
Longstaff celebrates scoring against Manchester United with Andy Carroll (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“As a kid, you play on the street and make up moments where a game is 0-0 and you score the winner,” Longstaff says. “To actually experience it, that feeling is tough to ever replicate. It’s something I’ll probably never top.”
This was a North Shields lad who, aged 10, “cried my eyes out” after initially being rejected by Newcastle’s academy. “My mam and dad told me, ‘Well, you better go and show them why they should sign you’.”
They did and, a few years later, Longstaff’s “bright ginger hair” caught Steve Bruce’s attention during Newcastle’s pre-season tour to China in 2019. Within three months, Bruce threw Longstaff into a struggling Newcastle side.
“The day before, I was going to press a mannequin in training and I felt dead nervous,” Longstaff says. “But, on the day, I wasn’t nervous. I just thought: ‘I get to go and play football with my brother at St James’. It might be a one-off, so just enjoy it and see what happens’.
“Scoring the goal and winning the game was so special, but just getting to play in the Premier League alongside my brother… We never thought that would happen for the first team. Then to get to do it, that’s still the proudest moment I’ve had in football.”
And a life-changing one. National headlines followed, as did local stardom.
“Suddenly, everyone recognised me,” says Longstaff. “Obviously, my ginger hair is a big giveaway, so my brother would tell me to put my hood up to hide it. You make a name for yourself and it does change your life.”
What an interview 👏
Matty Longstaff discusses his debut goal alongside older brother Sean. pic.twitter.com/gvpL32ihBf
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 7, 2019
So rapid was Longstaff’s rise that he was still on his £850-a-week scholar salary.
“At the time, you’re not even thinking about the new contract, you’re just enjoying every moment,” says Longstaff. “You’re so young and naive that you don’t realise the business of football. I was still living with my mam and I didn’t have a care in the world.”
Two and a half months later, on Boxing Day 2019, he scored against Manchester United again, this time at Old Trafford, and celebrated by pretending to inject ice into his veins.
“That was a bit mental,” Longstaff says. “Me, Dwight Gayle and DeAndre Yedlin said that whoever scores next had to do the ice-in-the-veins celebration. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t expect it to be me. My mam wasn’t too happy with it!”
But the remainder of his time at Newcastle was topsy-turvy. Often trusted against the biggest teams — he faced Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal — Longstaff was rarely fielded against bottom-half sides.
“I don’t know why that was,” Longstaff says. “Maybe when you play the big teams, there’s just less pressure. You’re not expecting the results so you can put the young kid in, let him run around and see what happens.”
That certainly featured in Longstaff’s thoughts during the summer of 2020. With Bundesliga and Ligue 1 clubs chasing him, and Serie A’s Udinese making a serious offer, Longstaff dallied. For almost two months, he was a free agent.
“I was very close to leaving and that’s why it went on for so long,” Longstaff says. “Everyone speaks about the money aspect and maybe they thought I was greedy, but it wasn’t really about the money, it was about playing.
“I was actually getting better offers from clubs abroad. The way I looked at it, they were going to try and build me a future. Whereas I always felt with Newcastle, I had meetings with the higher-ups and they said: ‘You’re from Newcastle, you should sign the deal. You’re homegrown, we shouldn’t have to match other teams’.
“I didn’t really feel like there was a desperation (to keep me)… or a pathway to playing. I wasn’t stupid, there were still top players at the club and I knew we were going to try and sign more. All of this was playing in my head.”
A belated conversation with Bruce ultimately changed his mind. “I went round to the manager’s house and he promised me that I was going to get minutes,” Longstaff says.
The pledge proved critical in his decision-making. Looking back, does he regret signing a two-year extension?
“Football changes so regularly but, thinking about the bigger picture, I should have left when I had the chance,” Longstaff says.
“But when you grow up at a club that your whole family supports and it’s all you’ve ever known, it’s probably something I would have had a big regret about if I had, always thinking, ‘What if?’”
Sean and Matty Longstaff in August 2019 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Quickly, Longstaff began to doubt Newcastle’s plan. He went 340 days without being named in a Premier League starting XI and played only 29 minutes during Newcastle’s opening 14 league matches of 2020-21.
“It was a weird time. You go from such a high of the season before, then I was out of the picture,” Longstaff says. “Some Championship teams wanted me on loan (in January 2021) and, for whatever reason, they wouldn’t let me go. Then I didn’t kick a ball for the rest of the season.
“I thought, ‘I need to get out of here’. I probably should have kicked up a bigger fuss to get away. I didn’t play enough football throughout the years I was there and I’d probably been too naive, thinking I could sit around, play games here and there and eventually get myself into the team. Hindsight’s a great thing.”
By the time he joined Aberdeen temporarily in August 2021, Longstaff’s confidence had evaporated and his long list of suitors had dwindled.
“Being brutally honest, I wasn’t the way I was when I first came through,” he says. “I hadn’t played in so long and I had no rhythm or momentum. It happened late in the window and it wasn’t a great move for me. But whereas the window before, I had four Championship clubs making offers, come the end of the season when I hadn’t kicked a ball, those teams go away. I hadn’t played in so long so those teams were reluctant to take me.
“To find another loan off the back of not performing is never easy. That move kind of killed me.”
Recalled from Scotland early, Longstaff’s next loan was only secured in the final hours of January 2022. At Mansfeld, Longstaff scored six goals in 18 games and found “enjoyment” in playing again, despite dropping down three levels to do so.
Newcastle’s takeover in October 2021 merely confirmed to Longstaff that his future lay elsewhere, even if a further year’s extension was triggered.
“As a fan, I was buzzing. You just have to look at were they are now and where they can go — that made me so happy,” Longstaff says. “But I wasn’t stupid, I was thinking, ‘That’s me done at Newcastle, I need to move on’.”
Longstaff on loan at League Two side Mansfield Town in 2022 (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
During the summer of 2022, Dan Ashworth, the sporting director at the time, confirmed as such.
“He was dead good,” says Longstaff. “He said: ‘The midfield is probably the strongest position and you’re not going to play’. He said he was going to help us look for a permanent move, but a few deals fell through. It’s tough when you have another year on your contract, and so I ended up going on loan again.”
Joining Colchester United felt wrong from the start.
“Nothing to do with the club, but I should never have gone,” Longstaff says. “We were still trying to get a permanent move done on deadline day. I should have put my foot down and said, ‘No, I’m not going’. It wasn’t the most logical move and it didn’t work.”
A hamstring injury limited his game time before, on December 26, 2022, Longstaff’s knee buckled under him at Gillingham.
“I heard the pop and I knew straight away,” says Longstaff. “I was absolutely devastated on the bus back to Colchester, knowing I’d be heading back to Newcastle and be out of contract at the end of the season. It’s usually a 12-month injury and you have a thousand things going through your head — mainly, ‘What’s going to happen here?’
“It was very mentally challenging and it definitely made me mentally tougher. That’s the side fans don’t see.”
The first surgery did not go to plan, meaning a second operation was required. While others doubted he would return, Longstaff always believed.
“You have dark moments,” Longstaff says. “But I’m a positive person. I always thought that, no matter how long it takes or how hard it gets, I’m going to play again.”
He remains grateful for Newcastle’s help.
“Dan Ashworth said to me: ‘You’ve helped get this place to where it is. We’ll always remember what you’ve done and we’re going to look after you. It doesn’t matter how long it takes’,” Longstaff says.
“The manager rang and said: ‘You’re such a positive person around the place. Keep being you, keep being positive, because it lifts the mood. Don’t feel for one minute that you don’t deserve to be here. The lads love you’.”
Once Longstaff’s contract expired, Ashworth offered to pay Longstaff to help him get his coaching badges so that he had a wage coming in. But, after a few coaching sessions at the academy, Longstaff felt he had to concentrate on his recovery.
“I’m an all-or-nothing type of person,” Longstaff says. “I’m so thankful for what they did but I needed to know I was doing everything possible to get myself in the best condition.”
If eight months without a club was refreshing for Longstaff, it was also daunting. But the move to Canada has left him feeling reinvigorated.
The weather is warmer, while being able to attend NHL matches is something Longstaff has embraced, given his father, David, was a professional ice hockey player.
“I’ve loved it,” Longstaff says. “I used to go and watch my dad play and coach at Whitley Bay.”
Although he misses walks on Tynemouth beach, Longstaff has welcomed the familiarity of a Geordie manager.
“He put his trust in me, coming off such a big injury,” Longstaff says of Herdman, the former Canada coach. “We speak about Newcastle a lot, especially now the season has restarted. We get on really well.”
Longstaff with Inter Miami’s Noah Allen in August (Chris Arjoon/Getty Images)
Herdman has given Longstaff regular game time and, while Toronto were pipped to an Eastern Conference play-off spot, Longstaff featured in 32 of their 34 MLS games.
“I needed to go somewhere I could play a lot,” Longstaff says. “I’ve built robustness and it’s the most I’ve played. Fingers crossed that continues.”
Every family member barring Sean has visited and Matty is due home for Christmas. He continues to track Sean’s progress from afar, regularly watching Newcastle over breakfast.
“I’m so proud of everything Sean has achieved,” Matty says. “He gets stick from certain fans at times, which he doesn’t deserve, and he’s made a scapegoat. But look at the games he’s played, the goals he’s scored in big games, and how mentally strong he is. I’ve always looked up to him and even more so now. I don’t think people understand the pressures of being the homegrown kid.”
With another year on his Toronto deal, Longstaff is settled. But does he have aspirations of returning to the Premier League?
“I’m just going with the flow,” Longstaff says. “Coming here is probably the best decision I’ve made in my career. I’m back to where I was when I first came through, having this high energy, flying around the pitch, getting on the ball all the time. Who knows where the future is going to take me, but I know how football changes on a dime, so I’m going to enjoy it.”
GO DEEPER
Sean Longstaff says ‘everyone had a price’ at Newcastle this summer
(Top photo: Longstaff playing for Toronto FC in May; Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
