Nathaniel Salmon grew up in a big basketball family in New Zealand. All four of his siblings have played at a college or national level, and he, himself, went pro at a young age.
“I’ve been playing professional basketball for three years now,” Salmon said. “I started my professional career when I was 17 and played in New Zealand, played in Australia.”
At a height of 6’7”, the sport makes sense for him. But now, Salmon is setting his sights on something very different: football.
“American football is not big at all in NZ,” said Salmon, admitting that he’s a new fan of the sport. “My dad would put on the Super Bowl sometimes just to watch because we liked the halftime shows. But no, we never kept up with the NFL growing up.”
He picked up a football for the first time just two months ago. But he’s now part of a group of global athletes flying to Florida to try and make it in the National Football League (NFL). Salmon is part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway (IPP) program Class of 2025. The program started in the United States in 2017 as a way for the league to bring talented athletes from other sports into the world of football.
Football has long been known as America’s game. But, the IPP is part of a number of ways the NFL is trying to go global. The league regularly plays a few games per year outside the US, and last year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league is looking to play upwards of eight games abroad in 2025.
“Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t,” said Pat Long, the director of international football development at the league. “Wherever you are in the world, we will find you. And we will help you develop to your highest potential through this program.”
Long said the program includes a lot of time working out on the field as well as studying in the classroom.
“They’re learning their positions, they’re learning how that fits within a scheme. [Watching] NFL films, even college films, so that they can truly learn the ins and outs of their position,” Long explained. “That’s just as important — if not more so — than the on-field work that takes place at camp.”
This year’s IPP camp started Monday at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Fourteen athletes from 13 nations will spend the next 10 weeks learning the game before showcasing their skills in front of NFL club scouts as part of the University of South Florida’s Pro Day in March.
This year’s class includes athletes from Fiji, France and Nigeria. They come with high-level careers in soccer, powerlifting and track and field.
Rojé Stona from Jamaica is joining the IPP. He just won a gold medal for his country at the Paris Olympics in the field sport discus. Stona became the first man from Jamaica to win a men’s discus final at an Olympic Games. He plans to use his strength to become a defensive line or tight end.
Many athletes in the program, though, have a rugby background. One of the most well-known names in the 2025 class is Australian rugby union star Jordan Petaia. He made history for his country by becoming the youngest player to represent the team in two Rugby World Cups: Japan in 2019 and France in 2023.
TJ Maguranyanga is making history differently. He’s the first athlete from Zimbabwe to join the IPP.
“It’s exciting for my family, my friends, for the nation as a whole to have a Zimbabwean representing them in this program,” Maguranyanga said. “And, you know, I think it’s great for other kids growing up to just see that this isn’t just something that is a dream but it’s actually attainable. And there’s a pathway to it.”
Like many of the athletes joining the IPP, Maguranyanga has never played organized football before.
“I’ve thrown [a] football in the backyard with my brothers or at school,” he said. “Just for fun, like at break time.”
But he occasionally watched the NFL growing up in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. He added that, since he was growing up in the early 2000s, the NFL has become a lot more popular across the country.
“Before, you would just walk around the streets and see a lot of NBA jerseys, but now you see football jerseys,” Maguranyanga said. “You’ll see a [Patrick] Mahomes jersey, you’ll see a [Travis] Kelce jersey. So, football is definitely growing.”
Since 2017, more than 40 IPP athletes have signed with NFL teams, proving that the pathway works. This year’s class hopes to follow in their footsteps.