NEW GULL PROFILE

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive talks about the newest Gull

NEW GULL PROFILE

The world is a much smaller place nowadays. Last season, we welcomed Zimbabwean Nash Sundire to South Devon. In 2024/25, we hosted the mercurial Omar Mussa from Burundi and another Gull with African ancestry signed on the dotted line this week: it’s a big Plainmoor welcome to Isaac Westendorf.

The imposing striker with a German name and birth certificate is the offspring of Ghanaian parents. I am guessing here, but I wouldn’t mind betting that his Mum and Dad don’t come from a long line of Westendorfs. Cursory research shows that Westendorf is a village in the Austrian Alps. It looks very pretty, and I would imagine that they did what immigrants often do on arrival in a new homeland: they change their name to something that the locals understand. There are so many examples: songwriter Isiah Berlin was originally Israel Belin. Charles Atlas was christened Angelo Siciliano and pizza enthusiast Andrew Mountbatten Windsor used to be called (checks notes) Prince Andrew Saxe-Coburg. Let’s hope the people who run the CRB checks for ex helicopter pilots are wise to that one.

Isaac moved to London aged 13, having been born in Bremen, a German port on the shores of the Baltic. It was a chilly start in life in 2001, and after doing well for Barking FC he got what must have seemed like a dream move to another nippy city when Newcastle United scooped him up to play in their under 23’s. By all accounts he did well there, and has since embarked on a real odyssey.

Now aged 25, he clearly has boots and will travel. When Newcastle released him he found his way to Larne in Northern Ireland, where he will have shared a dressing room the one and only Ali Omar. A loan spell followed at Balleymena, where he managed a couple of goals in 15 appearances. He never did notch for Larne, despite being part of their title-winning squad, and 2024/25 saw him plying his trade for Balzan FC in Malta. That doesn’t appear to have gone particularly well, because they got relegated after many years in the Maltese Premier League.

Oxford City then picked him up. They seem to be finding life slightly easier in National League North than they did in the South, where Gary Johnson’s Gulls once memorable pumped them 7-2.

In all honesty, Isaac’s stats don’t scream “Prolific”. By my reckoning, he’s got something like six goals in men’s football (two fewer than the eight Deon Moore got for us between March and May).

But it’s clear that Jimmy Ball believes he will be a handful. You can see the manager’s interview here:

There are some Isaac highlights, including a goal at Hereford. This denotes that he is definitely a better player than Duane Ofori-Acheampong, which does come as something of a relief.

He’s clearly an imposing figure, and in Jimmy’s words:

“He’s unique. He brings enthusiasm, power, pace and an aggressive attitude in the top third of the pitch.” He said that Newcastle’s coaches described him in glowing terms, and he is sure that he is going to be: “A handful.”

In short, Isaac may have many of the attributes that the boss unearthed in Moore, although one player stat website describes aerial duels as a weakness.

What is clear from the snippets of video available is that he is a big, physical lad who may be able to run through defenders rather than going around them. I feel that if he is to be our main option at Centre Forward, he may have a big burden to carry and a lot of work to get through. Hopefully he will prove to be as hungry and effective as Jimmy believes him to be.

He missed most of the second half of last season with an injury, but noises coming out of Plainmoor indicate that medicals are very thorough this summer, so hopefully he will be able to hit the ground running. One positive for Gulls fans is that he’s unlikely to be distracted by international football. He’s obviously qualified to play for Germany or Ghana, and neither of them do a lot of scouting in National League South.

Good luck Isaac!