Ntumba Massanka’s most heartbreaking moment in life came in football – so it’s all the sweeter that the business world has seemed like a piece of cake.

Family is a core theme of his journey, from Manchester United, his home-away-from-home in Wrexham, and now his local community.

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Born in Tottenham to two pastors, his parents relocated to Manchester with their church when he was around four-years-old.

Twelve months later, he first honed his skills on the street with his uncle, who was alongside him at age six when United spotted his talents in a youth tournament at the club’s old training ground, The Cliff.

Despite being the ‘only lad’ not plucked from Manchester-based side Fletcher Moss Rangers, the now 28-year-old quickly flourished.

He was looked after by Eddie Leach, ‘top coach and even better person’, Massanka described during our exclusive interview.

The striker told talkSPORT.com: “I’d never played Sunday League. All I knew of football was going to that Manchester United session.”

Massanka spent six years in the Old Trafford youth set-up, but gained a perspective of the enormity of the club he was at just as he was about to leave.

The forward had travelled overseas to Italy for tests against Ajax, Real Madrid, and hosts, Inter Milan, where a message from senior academy coach, Eamon Mulvey, would follow him home.

“I remember him saying, ‘Look, this is the biggest club in the world and everyone will want your shirt’,” Massanka added.

“We got to the hotel, and all the players from the other teams were knocking on our door asking for our shirts. That was at 12 years old.

Massanka was brought back down to earth faster than a plane when, on the cusp of his teenage years, he was released by United.

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Manchester United exit

He explained: “I was gutted because I was leaving my friends at the time. These are people that I’ve spent all my childhood years with. We’d seen each other grow. We’d been on that journey at Man United for a very long time.”

“To this day. I’ve never been more heartbroken than that day when I got told I got released,” Massanka continued to talkSPORT.

“Honestly, the best way I can describe it, I was sick for a week. I didn’t leave my room for one week.

“I was that heartbroken about obviously leaving United. It was a family club, so I felt like I was leaving my family.

“I felt like I’d been kicked out of my own family. It was tough, honestly, it was really, really tough.

“And because that’s all I’d been used to, it was tough to go elsewhere – When you’re at Man United as a kid, you don’t think of anywhere else.”

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Barcelona ‘suits’ Marcus Rashford

That is something over a decade later that two of his former Red Devils academy mates have discovered after rising through the ranks.

Scott McTominay, the star of Massanka’s age-group, has enjoyed a new lease of life at Napoli after saying goodbye last summer.

Marcus Rashford, in the year below, has now followed suit by completing a season-long loan move to Barcelona.

Massanka revealed: “For me, seeing Marcus at Barcelona, I think Barcelona definitely suits him.

“If he was ever going to leave Man United, it was going to be for a club like that.

“Obviously, it is a bit strange, seeing him in different colours. It was strange seeing him at [Aston Villa], not at United, because that’s all he’s known and that’s all I’ve obviously known him as United.

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“But I think Barcelona suits him, obviously, the stature of the club. Obviously, it’s as big as Man United.

“And I think the best players should play at the best clubs. I think Marcus has got so much talent.

“I genuinely hope, and I really want him to do well at Barcelona.

“I believe he will do well at Barcelona, because he has the people around him.

“He already seems happier, presumably from the videos that I’ve seen and stuff like that. So, I’m just wishing him the best.

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‘I thought Scott McTominay would captain Man United’

“Seeing Scott at Napoli was definitely strange, because I always thought Scott would captain Man United, even when we were kids.

“In my age group, particularly, Scott was the standout player, and he was the best player in my age group. Back then, he was really, really small.

“He did say to me that he’s going to Napoli, I was just happy for him, to be quite honest, because I know what it’s like going to play abroad and leaving home.

“I was really, really happy and thankful it’s worked out for him.”

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As mentioned, Massanka has tested himself abroad after leaving Old Trafford, having also cut his teeth in Man City’s academy.

He signed professional terms with Burnley in 2015, before enjoying spells in Belgium, at Italian side ASD Angelana, and in Cyprus.

A highlight during this period remains his stint at ‘sleeping giant’ Wrexham, several years prior to the club’s takeover by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and subsequent charge up the EFL.

Ironically, it proved to be a Welsh celebrity in Robbie Savage who brought him back to England as Macclesfield’s director of football.

Massanka helped the Silkmen win the NPL Division One West in 2023, by adding more than goals, having joined his mum and sister in the family’s cake business: Tshibangbakes.

The 6ft 2in striker explained: “I told them, ‘I’ll buy everything, you make the stuff, and I’ll take it to Macclesfield.’

“We’d just won the league. I thought, ‘All right, let me take these desserts to the boys.’ It’s a celebration.”

Macclesfield’s stars demolishing the cakes in 10 minutes was the push Massanka needed to use his connections to expand the business.

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‘Always grateful to Wrexham fans’

“My passion and my love have always been football,” Massanka shared. “That’s always been my first love.

“But as I’ve started to do business, one thing I realised is that there are so many transferable skills from football that I’ve now taken into this business that I’m doing now.

“I have a real passion for it, and I really enjoy being able to deliver really good desserts to people. I love networking. I have seen a massive change.”

Last month, Tshibangbakes had the perfect networking opportunity at Jeremie Frimpong’s innovative tournament aimed at empowering youngsters to discover new career opportunities.

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Frimpong has launched Pathways Initiative

In a venture managed by Cedrick Ofori, the new Liverpool star’s commercial manager and former Man City academy player, Dutch international Frimpong launched Pathways Tournament x Career Fair.

The inaugural edition of the competition proved such a success that an expanded event is being planned next year at a bigger venue.

Massanka told talkSPORT: “I feel like Manchester needed something like that and it came at the perfect time, to be honest.

“It’s great to see, obviously, Jeremy back in England. He’s done really, really well out in Germany. He’s an absolutely amazing man.

“We’re all really proud of him. Obviously, I’m a United fan, but to see him go inside for Liverpool was an amazing moment.. I think he’s going to smash it at Liverpool and that club suits him to a T.”

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Frimpong and Liverpool both put huge emphasis on community, with the aim of Join Pathways to help young players exiting football academies discover new career opportunities.

No one understands the importance of that message more than Massanka; “I was training pretty much every other day when I was a kid. So obviously, you miss out on a lot, don’t you?

“I feel like now, when it comes to my friends who have not played football and they just live the normal life, that tracks. if that makes sense. I’m behind in life. Whereas they’re more probably established.”

However, his life and career have come full circle since he felt like he’d been kicked out of his family when he left Man United, before his real one renewed his purpose.

“Now there is a lot more support for younger kids at academies, Massanka said. “But I think that the support’s only there because my generation, I’d say, has forced it to be there.

“A lot of things are happening now. Kids are getting paid better when they’re coming through academies. There’s a lot more care.

“I still think there’s so much more that can be done for kids, also. Every club should have a duty of care that when a player comes into their system, whether that’s from six years old or 15 years old, they should be gathering information on that player.

“Not based on their football ability. They should be gathering information based on what the person actually likes outside of football.

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“They need to try their hardest to find what their player enjoys outside of football. So what’s the second hobby?

“So that when football doesn’t work or when they have to retire or whatever, they have something else that they can fall back into.

“I was very, very lucky that my sister and my mother actually started that business; otherwise, I wouldn’t have known what I enjoy.

“I’ve only ever played football. I’ve never even dreamt of doing anything else. At United, the coaches always used to say, ‘Maybe one of you will only ever play for United.’

“And the chances of [just one doing] that are slim. So you need to know what you’re doing.” – Thankfully, Massanka now does…