However, he struggled to establish himself in the first team, making 70 appearances during a seven-year spell and spending time on loan with Middlesbrough, Cardiff City and Bolton Wanderers.
After originally settling in the city centre, the family later relocated to Fenham as John, who had worked as a teacher in Nigeria,[5] undertook a PhD in agricultural engineering.
[8] Their father later stated how the family were victims of racist abuse after arriving in Britain, nearly returning to Nigeria before claiming that God told him to remain in Newcastle.
[6] Sammy later recalled his own experiences, commenting "There was the odd time when I was chased by someone riding a bike, and had to run home and lock the door behind me.
"[6] As their father's visa did not allow him to work, the family survived on the £15 a week wages brought in by their mother's part-time job.
[9] Ameobi said in a 2011 interview that football "wasn't [his] thing" as a child, but seeing his older brother Shola make his first team debut for Newcastle against Chelsea in September 2000 spurred on his enthusiasm for the game.
[7] His youth career was severely disrupted after suffering a serious hip injury, taking a year to recover from surgery in Colorado.
[20] Having not featured for Newcastle in over a month, manager Alan Pardew confirmed that Ameobi had been made available for loan and several clubs had shown interest.
[28] Ameobi made 39 appearances in all competitions during his loan spell with Cardiff as the club fell short of a play-off place, but only 11 of these were starts.
[29] Towards the end of his loan spell, Slade described Ameobi as an "enigma" and commented "Sammy has fantastic ability, we watch him in training every day, but not always has he transferred that to the pitch.
[33] He was initially restricted to substitute appearances following his late arrival to the squad but was quickly tipped by manager Phil Parkinson to be a "game-changer" for Bolton.
[31] On 14 July 2017, Ameobi signed a permanent deal to return to Bolton, who had been promoted to the Championship, on a one-year contract.
[39] In his first six appearances of the season, he scored three times resulting in his nomination for the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Championship player of the month for October.
[43] After cancelling the final year of his contract with Bolton, Ameobi joined Nottingham Forest on a one-year deal on 24 June 2019.
[50] After being released by Nottingham Forest, Ameobi signed for Middlesbrough which was announced on 29 June 2021, however he missed the entire season due to injury.
[52] However, in November 2011, he was called up to the England U-21 squad for matches against Iceland and Belgium by Stuart Pearce as an injury replacement for Connor Wickham.