At the age when others are negotiating a last contract that will ensure them a golden retirement in football in an exotic country, former England international Andy Carroll travels by coach with the Girondins de Bordeaux, a historically relegated team to the French fourth division.
A choice that involves facing amateur rivals and that the imposing forward with a ponytail explains by his “love of football.”
With two doubles in his first two games, the former tower of Newcastle, Liverpool and West Ham has already won the hearts of the local fans.
And few were betting on the success of the former Premier League star in his last adventure, at the age of 35, in a historic French football team that had fallen into disrepair and was under judicial administration.
Andy, more motivated than ever to enjoy himself on the pitch after years of suffering due to injuries, seems to be experiencing a second youth.
“I was not afraid of the situation, of the risk of the club’s disappearance. I knew it, I had confidence,” Carroll told AFP.
“It fits with my lifestyle and my way of enjoying football, it was a very good option for me,” he continues, aware that the decision may have surprised him. “But it was an easy decision for me.”
– Well received –
At Girondins de Bordeaux (14th in National 2 with two fewer games), the former Three Lions international (9 games, 2 goals) earns much less than he could be earning, for example in the Persian Gulf, but he says he is governed by ” the love of football, which will never die”.
Thinking about the seven-hour bus ride to play a match across half of France, Carroll smiles: “I’m used to it. I already experienced it last season in the French Cup with Amiens. And when I was a child it was what was done with the academy.” .
His beginnings with the Girondins on an individual level have been dreamlike: two consecutive doubles – which he had never achieved in 248 games in the Premier League – “but it would have been better if we had won the first one (2-2).”
“The team is very good, the fans were brilliant in the two games I played. I am happy to be immersed in this project,” celebrates Carroll, who has landed on a good footing in the club and in the city.
Midfielder Adrien Louveau highlights his influence on the team’s mentality. “Beyond his goals, he is always encouraging us, helping his teammates.”
His physical presence (1.93 m), his ability to fix central defenders and his headers make him one of the standards of the historic club.
“When you have a leader with weight, who sets an example, the others around him want to live up to it,” supports coach Bruno Irlès.
– Objective of the ‘pink press’ –
It was in the European summer of 2023 when Andy Carroll decided to try abroad by signing for Amiens, from the French second division.
“Leaving England was one of the things I wanted to do. I wanted a new challenge, to write a new chapter,” he explains.
“I don’t know if life in France has changed me, but it has changed my life,” and “the flight is not too far to see my family and friends again.”
Indeed, Great Britain is not far away, and it is not strange to see the press or tabloids of their country at the team’s training center, intrigued to see one of their former stars and ‘celebrity’ playing in amateur football. French.
“I didn’t expect them to talk about me that way,” Carroll admits, just three days after a romantic getaway to Mallorca with influencer Lou Teasdale uncovered by the Daily Mail.
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