Moving down West Ham way from Liverpool in summer 2012, nine-times capped England international Andy Carroll netted 34 times during his 142 outings in Claret & Blue. These days, the popular goal-getter is enjoying a new lease of life with SC Amiens in France...
Vive la France
Sitting through my French lessons at Joseph Swan School in Gateshead as a teenager, I never expected that I’d ever even go to France, yet alone need to speak the language. We just spent three years learning nothing, while throwing paper aeroplanes around the classroom.
But now I find myself across the English Channel playing for SC Amiens in Ligue 2 and I’m loving every moment.
People ask how I’ve ended up in France? Well, since leaving West Ham United in 2019, I’d constantly been looking for a new challenge. The Premier League lifestyle takes its toll and before finishing my career, I knew that I wanted to play in another country, whether it was in Europe or even the USA.
It was time to try something different and I kept telling myself: ‘You’ve been doing this since you were 17, you’re not getting any younger.’
Then, when Rubén Sellés took over at Reading last summer, I could see he wanted a younger team without us old boys. We had an honest chat. ‘I’m not going to be one of your players,’ I told him. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll find myself another club.’
But when I phoned my agent asking him to find me a team outside England, he replied: ‘It’s not quite as easy as that!’
A few days later, though, I got invited to France and, arriving in Amiens, immediately knew it was going to be the perfect move.
Formed in 1901, the club’s about as old as West Ham. We get around 12,500 fans at Le Stade de la Licorne and, just like those at London Stadium, they’re a brilliant set of supporters.
We’ve got decent lads in the dressing room, including Gael Kakuta who once played for Chelsea, and I’ve met some really lovely locals, too.
There’s always lots going on and, with a canal running through the town, we’ve got a few nice restaurants dotted on either bank. It’s great just walking around or sitting down having a meal and glass of beer because the whole place is so relaxed.
The locals call me 'Andy Le Footballer'.
Having French lessons all over again, I’m paying much more attention this time around!
Unfortunately, there aren’t any international schools nearby and, although the kids love coming over during their school holidays, after our matches I head back home to Essex, where I get Sunday and Monday off.
Only four hours door-to-door, it actually takes longer to get from London to see my folks up in Newcastle!
After my first game, I asked the lads: ‘Where do we leave our boots?’ They looked puzzled so I made a brushing movement and said: ‘Who cleans the boots?’ Pointing their fingers towards me, they laughed: ‘You do!’
Luckily, I don’t have to bring the kit home for my wife Billi to wash but there’s still something quite humbling about taking my boots to our games in a carrier bag. I now appreciate exactly what I had when I was playing in the Premier League and it reminds me so much of my Sunday morning football days as a kid back home on Tyneside.
I may have gone full circle but. like I say, I’m loving life right now.
Hammer time
Everyone keeps me up to date with everything that’s going on at West Ham. I’m forever speaking to Aaron Cresswell, while our eight-year-old son, Arlo, gets along to most of the games, too.
Obsessed with football, Arlo seems to know every player from the Premier League to Ligue 2. He gives me full match reports afterwards and is always sending me highlights clips from YouTube.
I try to get to London Stadium whenever the Amiens fixture list allows me, and these last few years have been absolutely incredible. Full credit to David Moyes.
It was great seeing West Ham reach the UEFA Europa League semi-finals before then winning the UEFA Europa Conference League last June. And this year they did so well to make it to the quarter-finals of European competition for a third successive season.
Already Bundesliga champions, Bayer Leverkusen have been on a different level this season, but they were certainly run close in last week’s second leg at London Stadium.
It was such a shame that the Hammers just couldn’t get over the line in the end.
When I look at this West Ham United team, though, they’re progressing nicely and the Football Club is nothing like it was during my seven years there.
Some of the signings over the past couple of seasons have been different class and, although they’ve played a few games more, they still seem to be within touching distance of Chelsea, Manchester United and my old club Newcastle United in the Premier League.
Jür-gone Klopp
Liverpool suffered a bit of a slump recently and that’s a real shame because I’d love them to win the Premier League ahead of Arsenal and Manchester City.
It was an unbelievably strange result when they lost their UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg at home to Atalanta (0-3) and, despite winning the return in Italy (1-0) they’d obviously left themselves a mountain to climb.
Given the choice, though, I’d take winning the title over 38 matches rather than lifting the Europa League trophy and, hopefully, Jürgen Klopp can still leave Liverpool on a high.
I look back on my time at Anfield under Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers and - just like at West Ham nowadays, too - everything’s totally different. Jürgen’s a fantastic coach who’s really lifted spirits on Merseyside over these last eight years.
Once again, Liverpool are back where they should be and talking to people at Anfield, everyone speaks so highly of him. Jürgen Klopp has made such a great difference on Merseyside and, when he leaves next month, it’s going to be a massive loss for Liverpool Football Club.
Carroll cracker
I’ve still got the striker’s instinct and, back in October, lobbed the goalkeeper from just outside the centre-circle in our 1-1 draw against Annecy.
So far, it’s been my best goal in France - I’d never scored from that distance before - but, although the French loved it, there was no comparison with my scissor-kick against Crystal Palace in January 2017.
After training on the Thursday lunchtime, I’d got Aaron Cresswell to whip over some practice crosses ahead of the Palace game. I’d scored one bicycle-kick and missed another before manager, Slaven Bilić, rushed over telling me to stop the acrobatics. ‘Are you crazy?’ he asked. ‘You’ll injure yourself and miss Saturday’s game!’
But during the match itself, Michail Antonio sent over a ball that was just waiting to be volleyed. Doing what I’d done at Rush Green a couple of days earlier, I sent an unstoppable scissor-kick past Wayne Hennessey.
Goals like that don’t just happen and it shows that if you practice you’ll know what to do if a similar opportunity crops up during the game.
My volley in our 3-0 victory at London Stadium also won the Premier League Goal of the Month award.
I scored big goals for England, Newcastle and Liverpool, too, but that’s easily the best of my entire career spanning 400-odd matches.
Whenever I talk to West Ham fans - 100 per cent - that volley always crops up, while my own kids still keep trying it in the back garden, too.
They just haven’t perfected the technique and they’ve got no chance of copying it. I’m forever telling them: ‘No-one will ever do that like me!’
Bowen's on fire!
I scored for England in our win over Sweden (3-2) at the 2012 UEFA European Championships and nothing beats playing at a major summer tournament.
After his 19 goals for West Ham this season and two promising England performances against Brazil and Belgium during last month’s international break, Jarrod Bowen has surely - 100 per cent - got to be on the plane to Germany in June.
As soon as Jarrod arrived at London Stadium in 2020, I was telling everyone he’d become the Club’s best player and, over these past four years, he’s just got better and better.
Possessing so much energy, Jarrod’s one of the few players around who’s got the pace and power to carry the ball from his own half deep into opposition territory.
England have got great potential to do well at Euro 2024 and Jarrod certainly deserves that call from Gareth Southgate.
Age-less Andy
At Reading, the kids chose the No2 shirt for me and - with No9 already taken - at Amiens they then told me to make myself No99. I’ve gone from the lowest outfield squad number to the highest but - in reality - the manager’s playing me as a defensive No10.
It’s a strange role because I’ve always been an out-and-out striker, but I’m enjoying my new position and Amiens have been doing quite well in Ligue 2.
Looking at the table, we really should be higher, but we’ve conceded some silly last-minute goals and have had some stupid results lately.
There are some good teams in the division - including leaders Auxerre plus St Étienne - but coming into this weekend we’re still in the hunt for the Play-Offs with just four games remaining.
Billi keeps asking me: ‘When are you going to finish playing?’
But I’ve lost so much time to injuries during my career, I really want to make up for that over these next few seasons. Aged 35, I look at my appearance record and I’ve only played those 400-odd matches since starting out as a 17-year-old. It should be a lot more than that.
I’ve already told Omar Daf - Amiens head coach - that I’ll still be running around when I’m 40, so he knows where I am whenever needs me..!
