Spain, fashion and HR - catching up with former Spurs and Newcastle defender Stephen Carr

A product of our Academy who went on to become a key component of our first team, Stephen Carr made 270 appearances for us between 1993 and 2004 before joining Newcastle United. We recently caught up with the former Republic of Ireland international to discuss his time at the Club, his journey since and find out what he’s up to now...

Twenty years ago, Stephen was regarded as the best right-back in the Premier League but it's a vastly different role that occupies the former defender’s attention now as he instead pushes forward with his hospitality business in Spain and the launch of his own clothing brand, One of One.

Coming through our youth system in the early 1990s, having been first scouted by the Club in his home city of Dublin, the Irishman went on to become our youngest ever Premier League player – a record that he held up until February, when Dane Scarlett came off the bench against West Brom. Demonstrating his talent at full-back, Stephen became a first team regular with us, helped us to League Cup victory in 1999, was our Player of the Season in 1999/2000 and later became our captain. He was a real fans’ favourite at White Hart Lane and that was shown with the defender proving to be a popular choice among supporters as they voted for their ‘Team of the Century’ back in 2001. Unfortunately, a serious knee injury disrupted his final few years at the Lane – an issue that also saw him miss out on playing for his country at the 2002 World Cup.

After 11 years in north London, he moved on to pastures new in 2004 as he joined Newcastle United but, again, similar problems with his knee would prove a nuisance for him across his four years in the north east. He exited St James’ Park at the end of his contract in the summer of 2008 and returned to Ireland as he looked to regain his fitness and find a new club. That opportunity, however, didn’t come for almost a year as he made his comeback with Birmingham City in February, 2009, at the age of 32. Yet it was a move that couldn’t have worked out much better for him.

Joining the Blues in the Championship, Stephen helped the West Midlands outfit to promotion in his first season, to ninth spot in the Premier League in his second and then captained them to League Cup glory and subsequently into European football in his third. Another knee injury, however, saw his time at Birmingham come to an end after the 2012/13 campaign in what was the final chapter of his professional career.

Making the decision to retire in the summer of 2013, Stephen also opted to leave football behind entirely - the idea of coaching never even entered his mind. Instead, it was to Marbella that he moved as he had business interests in restaurants and a beach club in the Spanish holiday resort. He has dipped back into football since with work through an agency but with the coronavirus pandemic ongoing, difficulties have been met in all lines of his work. However, not to be held back, the ever-ambitious Carr now has a new focus on the horizon with the upcoming launch of his own clothing brand of lounge wear.

“Coaching is very difficult. It’s difficult with kids now – it’s a completely different set-up to what it was,” he explained. “You’ve got academies. And how many jobs are available? How many ex-players are qualifying as coaches every year? There are not that many jobs. I’ve gone from being a footballer, being lucky enough to be going in at 8.30am and be home by 1.30pm. As a coach, you’re in early and home late so you need to have a real desire and hunger. For me, I don’t have any desire for that - you either love it or you don’t. If you don’t love it enough, you should never get into it. So, coaching never entered my mind. Instead, I moved to Spain straight away because I’m involved in restaurants and a beach club over there. I thought I’d go there, it’d be a different experience. I had the freedom that I could do that.

“The hospitality industry is obviously different to football in that you’re not going in with a group of lads to train, you’re training on your own, but I never thought of it like that. I saw it as 'your time’s up, you need to go, move on to whatever next you’re going to do in your life'.

“I was working in staffing, in the HR department of the business for a few years. Then I took a bit of a step out of it, I tried to do a bit with a football agency and at the moment, I’m setting up an online clothing brand which will be made to measure called One of One – it’s going to have a fingerprint as a logo and it’ll mainly be lounge wear. Hopefully we will start that up this year. So, I’m actually busy with a few different things at the moment.

“Obviously, the restaurant business is good but we’re going through a stage where that industry especially has been hit very hard. You are just hoping things will change a bit – it needs to change everywhere. These are difficult times at the moment in most industries. You have to adjust to it, and I think most people's attitude towards it is you just fight to next year. You fight and hopefully by the spring/summer, things pick up. Fingers crossed but, who knows?”

For Stephen, he regards his years in north London as the best time of his life, but there is always one period that stands out for him. As we moved into the new Millennium, the full-back hit some of the best form of his career. In 1999/2000, he was named our Player of the Season and the following term, he was selected for the Premier League’s PFA Team of the Year. He was putting in sublime performances at right-back week in, week out, quality displays which were epitomised by his goal against Sunderland in May, 2000 – a 60-yard dash and a delightful chipped finish at the end of it. It’s a goal he prefers even more than his famous thunderbolt against Manchester United.

“That was my favourite,” Stephen smiled as he recalled his strike against the Mackems. “People say the United one but with that one, there was a lot of luck. Anyone can smash the ball into the top corner - when you’re running with it and hitting it with that pace, when it’s wet and all, you just hope it goes in. I just caught it really sweet. I was lucky and it flew in. With the Sunderland one, it’s more of a technical goal. So, that’s my favourite – to lob the keeper from that angle. When people think I crossed it, I didn’t actually cross it – I did mean that!

“It was just the delicacy of it. I think anyone can just smash a ball - most of the time, they won’t go in. If you asked me to keep trying to replicate the United one, I wouldn’t get them in. I think there is more luck involved. With that Sunderland goal, there’s not a lot of luck involved – it’s about having that bit of technical ability in that moment. It summed that period up I suppose. Things like that just happen for you when you are on form.”

Stephen returns for historic match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Stephen was part of a star-studded Spurs Legends side that took on Inter Forever in the second test event match at our new stadium just before it opened in 2019 - two years ago this week! Check out the highlights below...