By: Hassan Osman Kargbo
A Sierra Leonean decent who was born in England, Steven Caulker has explained part of his football journey to the media.
Steven Caulker (born 29 December 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back, who is currently the player-manager of Málaga City. Born in England, he represents and captains the Sierra Leone national team in the just concluded Nations Cup.
According to Caulker, football is a tough industry. “Football is a tough industry. We can spend months waiting for an offer, and when it arrives, how can we be sure it is the right one?
3 years ago, I turned down a Champions League club to join Fenerbaçhe. Why? Ego, I wanted to be the one to help them win the league after 7 years of falling short,” he said.
He continued that two days after signing, a new coach was appointed, and he said, he could tell from the very first handshake that he was not his man, adding that the Coach later told him that he is not in his plans and that he needed to find a new team.
“I panicked. I was offered a loan move, and I reluctantly took it. I ended up living on the border of Syria and felt completely isolated away from family & friends. The next summer, I was offered a 2 year deal by Karagümrük under the guidance of Andrea Pirlo and a 2 year deal by Blackburn in the Championship. I couldn’t decide, I was fearful of making the wrong decision again,” he noted.
“After 2 weeks of debating, I chose Blackburn. It seemed the right thing to do to finally return home to England after so many years away. I sat in the manager’s office the next day waiting to sign the deal when my agent was called out of the room. The owner had changed his mind and was now only offering me a 1 year deal due to ‘medical reasons’. I felt betrayed. I walked out. I sat in my hotel room and cried. I had made the wrong decision, AGAIN,” he said.
“My agent managed to rekindle the deal in Turkey with Karagümrük (although for a lot less money), and I got back on the plane the next day. Pirlo was unimpressed with my decision to turn them down two days before and never really gave me a chance to play. In truth, my heart also wasn’t in it, and we decided to cut ties after just 6 months. I was now a free agent and decided to head back to the UK to spend time with my family. It took only three days for the phone to ring again, this time it was Kolo Toure at Wigan. Deep in the relegation zone at the time, it didn’t look that appealing. The next day, Rotherham called, another team fighting for survival in the Championship. Both offers were exactly the same, I had another decision to make..,” he stated.
He said he chose Wigan due to the fact that Kolo was my old teammate from Liverpool. 10 days later, he was sacked, the new manager never played me, and we got relegated that summer. Rotherham stayed up. I then spent 6 months out of football, scared to make the wrong decision again before making another wrong decision to go to Spain, and have issues with my visa. The moral of the story is that don’t let one bad decision affect your next one. I was too emotionally involved in every decision.” Caulker mentioned.
