Andy Carroll was once a £35m striker, a sum which at the time made him the most expensive British footballer ever and, perhaps even more astonishingly, the eighth most expensive overall. He seemingly had the world at his feet. Having made his England debut in 2010, scored his first senior international goal in 2011, and played for the Three Lions six times in 2012, he appeared well set for a fine career with his nation.
Carroll was always a somewhat divisive figure, partly due to prejudices about the way he looked and sounded and the type of player he was. However, at his best he was unplayable, combining strength, size, power, pace and brilliant finishing. A fine run of form with his boyhood club Newcastle persuaded Liverpool to part with that huge £35m transfer fee but he never really settled at Anfield.
He was affected by off-pitch issues, often linked to drinking, and a series of injuries, with a suggestion that he did not look after himself during rehabilitation or do everything he could to hasten his return. Whatever the reason, his stay at Liverpool was short and largely unhappy, although he did win the only major silverware of his career with the Reds, in the shape of the 2011/12 League Cup.
Carroll Joins Bordeaux
Now, well over a decade on from his time on Merseyside, the 6ft 4in striker finds himself in the somewhat balmier environs of Bordeaux. Historically one of France’s biggest clubs, Bordeaux have won Ligue 1 six times, including in 2008/09, when they also won the French league cup.
However, to say they have stumbled on hard times would be an understatement. They now compete in Group B of the Championnat National 2. This is effectively the fourth tier of French football, with it divided into three geographically based groups – A, B and C – each with 16 teams.
Only the top side from each group earns promotion so Bordeaux clearly have a lot of work to do if they are to compete with the big boys again any time soon. Should they top their current division they would play the 2025/26 campaign in the Championnat National, meaning they would need a further promotion just to reach Ligue 2 and then a third in order to get back among the elite of French football.
The Championnat National 2 is part-amateur and partly semi-pro and Bordeaux find themselves at this level, unsurprisingly, due to off-field issues. The global health crisis of 2020 and 2021 hit them hard financially. They began to struggle on and off the pitch and finished bottom of Ligue 1 in 2021/22, dropping into Ligue 2 the following year.
There have been various sanctions and penalties imposed on the club, with appeals and counter appeals and lots of legal and administrative toing and froing. At one stage the club decided to voluntarily give up its professional status to try and minimise the long-term damage to the stability of the operation.
However, Bordeaux went bankrupt and at the start of August 2024 they suffered a double relegation into the fourth tier of French football. And then they signed Andy Carroll.
Bordeaux Announce Left-Field Signing
💥 MERCATO 💥
Welcome @AndyTCarroll 😉 Le club 🔵⚪ est enchanté d’accueillir l’attaquant international anglais 🏴
Une très grande expérience du haut niveau avec près de 4️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ matches pros, un renfort de choix pour l’attaque bordelaise ! pic.twitter.com/QQfFC4sM7h
— FC Girondins de Bordeaux (@girondins) September 18, 2024
Those who have followed Carroll’s career closely (hello Mr and Mrs Carroll, your son’s got lovely hair!) may be less surprised than the average fan about his move to Bordeaux. That is because, as well as a loan and then permanent spell with West Ham, a stint back with the Magpies, time with Reading and West Brom in the Championship and then a couple of games in League One with the Royals, Carroll moved to French outfit Amiens in September 2023.
Amiens were in Ligue 2 at the time, the second tier, and Carroll, who was 34 years old when he made the move, played 31 times for the club, scoring four goals. This term, 2024/25, he had played four times for the club in the league, largely off the bench, but getting the whole 90 minutes on the 13th of September in a 3-0 defeat at Annecy.
And then, to the shock of more or less everyone, the former England international dropped two divisions to join Bordeaux. It was something of a coup for the French side, with a former England international and one-time £35m hitman not the standard signing of a team in the lower reaches of French football. Carroll earned in the region of £80,000 a week at Liverpool and West Ham and as we will see, Bordeaux would not – indeed, could not – pay anything like that.
From their point of view, they were getting an experienced and, at his best, hugely talented footballer. He hit the ground running too, with a brace on his debut at home against the mighty Voltigeurs de Chateaubriant. Bordeaux needed him too, as they were 2-0 down with just under 20 minutes remaining but Carroll’s goals in the 72nd and 88th minute secured them a point in what is already looking like it could be a trying campaign.
Football the Key for Carroll
On the face of it, dropping two divisions from a standard that was already well below where Carroll would have expected to have found himself makes no sense. But the striker, who scored for England at Euro 2012 against Sweden, is simply delighted to be playing football.
Whether we assign the core of the “blame” to bad luck, or his lifestyle, the former hero of St James’s Park has had a career ravaged by injuries. He has missed out on so much football, making an always-short career seem even shorter. On the other hand, his big-money moves (his combined career transfer fees are in excess of £50m) and the commensurate wages he has collected mean he is financially set for life.
When viewed through that lens, a move to a beautiful part of the world where he can expect to get plenty of game time in the final stages of his career makes sense, even if the wages are, relatively speaking neither here nor there. The former Liverpool man is reported to be collecting €3,500 a month at his new club.
That currently equates to £2,917, or approximately what he made every six hours in the Premier League. But Carroll said, “To be honest, it actually costs me money to play for Bordeaux”. He added that, “it’s never been about money in my career” and that he was “happy to play football” and wanted to be “part of the history of this club”.
He has also spoken of his desire to play into his 40s and with his fitness seemingly better than it has been for a long time, aided by a healthier lifestyle and the maturity that comes with age, what a story it would be if he could help Bordeaux work their way back up the French football ladder.