Where are they now? Stephen Carr

A product of our Academy who went on to become a key component of our first team for more than a decade, Stephen Carr made 270 appearances for us between 1993 and 2004.

Back in January, 2021, we 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...

The early years

It would be fair to say Stephen Carr became a Spurs legend during his 11 years in north London.

Having risen through our youth ranks after being spotted by our scouts in his home city of Dublin in the Republic of Ireland in the early 1990s, Stephen went on to star for our first team as he made well over 250 appearances in lilywhite, lifted silverware and even went on to captain the side. He also became a Republic of Ireland international, picking up almost half-a-century of caps for the Boys in Green.

He certainly enjoyed a stellar career in the game but it is to our youth system where Stephen lays a lot of credit for his success, outlining that it was an environment that really gave him the grounding to excel as a professional.

"The Academy was a bit like I was used to at home. It was down to earth, real, so I felt comfortable there," he said on his first impressions of the Club and our youth system.

"I was then very lucky from there. The minute I went into training, there was such a great first team. Gazza (Paul Gascoigne) was still there, Paul Stewart, Nayim, all those great players who you’ve seen and were successful at the Club.

"For me at that age though, it was all about playing football, enjoying playing football. And you were always taught to play the right way at Spurs.

"It was a great learning curve for a young player, learning to play football, but not just to lump it, at every age level. Through from Terry Venables when he was there, then Ossie Ardiles, it was all about playing football, not being afraid to make mistakes. For me it was amazing. As a young player it was brilliant.

"You need to still win games, but it is still nice being taught the right way from being young and it not being all about results as such.

"Everyone wants to win but you still have to be taught from a young age. I just enjoyed it. It was always good, always fun, always technical. Training was always brilliant at every age level."

Getting his break

It was at the age of just 17 that Stephen was given his first appearance in our colours as he came off the bench at half-time in a 2-2 draw away to Ipswich to become our youngest-ever appearance maker in the Premier League - a record he held up until Dane Scarlett's substitute appearance in our 2-0 win over West Brom in February, 2021.

But, it was through both hard work and fortune that the Irishman admits his opportunity came.

"I was very lucky because Ossie Ardiles took to me," he smiled as he spoke about his former manager. "He really took to me, got me in training with the first team.

"I then got an opportunity through bad luck for Dean Austin as, unfortunately for him, he had a really bad break. Ossie had seen me because he did take a lot of notice of the youth team training and playing. He must have seen something in me that I could fill Deano’s spot.

"I didn’t really play after that though because he got David Kerslake in, who he knew from Swindon and he was very good technically. A very good player.

"For me, I just then spent time around the first team training and learning with some very good players like Vinny Samways and Micky Hazard - unbelievable players on the ball. Very technical. So, I was very lucky that Ossie took a shine to me and I do think you do need that bit of luck, especially when you are younger. I enjoyed training and Ossie said just be patient, you’re learning the game.

"It was difficult though because, while Ossie was brilliant with me, when he left, Gerry Francis came in. He didn’t really take to me like Ossie and Deano was still playing. So, it was a difficult period but that's football.

"You’re around the first team but you’re not playing. You are a substitute and then you’re playing in the reserves. When you get a taste for it, you just want to be there all the time then.

"When you’re in the squad, it's brilliant but after a while, it’s not enough for you - you want to play. But after a few years, I got my foot in and then had quite a decent time and ended up playing quite a few games."

Stephen Carr

Dean Austin

Vinny Samways

Ossie Ardiles

Hitting the heights

and World Cup woes

He certainly did end up having quite the time in north London as, once he had consolidated his position on the right-hand side of our defence, he made it his own.

Over the next decade, Stephen went on to cement his palce in our first team but, while it took the Irishman some time to get going in our colours, once he did, he was a force to be reckoned. His performances were so good that he was twice recognised as the best in his position in the Premier League, being named in the PFA Team of the Year in both 2000/01 and 2002/03.

Throughout the first of those stellar campaigns though, the full-back admits his desire to play and continue his strong form did ultimately cost him a place in the Republic of Ireland squad for the 2002 World Cup, as he ended up making an ongoing injury worse.

"I wasn’t always great when I got in playing, you know," he explained. "I wasn’t the complete favourite player at that stage, I know, but I worked at it and became quite a top, top player at the Club. I had gone through the youth system at Spurs and fans always appreciate their homegrown players. They knew what they got from me in the end, so we ended up having a good time of it with different managers.

"That period (1999-2003) was my best time at Tottenham. I think maybe even 2001. I did have a really bad knee; I was struggling with it, but I played with it because I was playing well enough, so I didn’t want to stop. But, unfortunately, I made it worse.

"I ended up having my operation in 2002 I think and then I ended up missing the World Cup because of setbacks with my op'. It was quite difficult. In the period before, maybe I should have stopped but I was enjoying my football and I was playing well. I struggled warming up but, once I got going, I was fine, so I just kept going.

"I should have stopped and had an op', so I made it worse, but that’s the gamble you take. Unfortunately, rehab then didn’t go according to plan, so I ended up missing the World Cup over it, but that’s life. You can’t really dwell on it. I was enjoying the time while I was playing.

"I had played in most of the qualifiers as well. It was tough obviously but, what can you do? Sometimes you would get another opportunity – I didn’t because of other injuries and other things that happened down the line – but that was my opportunity to play in a World Cup and it went. I don’t look back and think… I’d have loved to, but it wasn’t meant to be. It is what it is."

1999 League Cup

And, right at the start of the bright period in lilywhite for Stephen came silverware as, in March, 1999, he helped us to claim the League Cup.

Taking on Leicester City in the final at Wembley Stadium, we earned a 1-0 victory with a late, late goal from Allan Nielsen sealing our third of four League Cup triumphs to date.

"I remember that run in the League Cup to reach the final. We beat some very good teams and then we ended up having Leicester in the final.," he recalled. "That was very memorable, but I don’t think when you get to a final, especially at Wembley - the old Wembley - which was iconic in world football, I don’t think you appreciate it enough, especially, when you’re younger. You don’t really think about it, you’re just playing. You know it is big, but you don’t take it in as much, I don’t think. I enjoyed it because we were a good group of players then, Les Ferdinand, Justin Edinburgh – who’s unfortunately passed now – Stephen Clemence was my roomie, so it was a good crew of people, a good group of lads.

"When I look back, I don’t think I did take it in because then when I won it with Birmingham (a 2-1 win over Arsenal 2011)– and maybe it was a different era because I was older, so you take it in a bit more. You appreciate you’ve won a medal and that’s its big, you’re in the dressing room at Wembley, you’re going up the steps, but did I take it in enough? Probably not. I probably looked at it as another game of football and that was just something at the end of it.

"I took it, enjoyed it and just moved on. It doesn’t stick with me, I think. The moment is great, I think it is great for your family and the people around you as much as it is for you because, that is who you are doing it all for really. But it was amazing, an amazing day. Like I say, it was a good group of lads that we had and just the way it happened. With Justin (Edinburgh) being sent off, you’re then against the odds a bit but we then nick and goal and win it.

"It was the perfect way (to win it). It’s the worst thing to happen to you but the best thing for you. I can’t imagine the other side of it if it happens to you in the last minute. It’s very rare to come back from something like that. You’re just dead. Especially when we had 10 men, it just killed them completely. So, it was a good way to win a final."

Fine finishes

Despite being a defender, and in an age before the wing-backs came to the fore in a team's attacking outlets, Stephen certainly knew where the back of the net was - and he was responsible for some quite memorable strikes at White Hart Lane.

One of those was the strike you will have seen on the previous slate and one that many fans will be unlikely to forget - a thunderous effort in our 3-1 win over Manchester United at the Lane in October, 1999 - however it is his delicate chip versus Sunderland on the final day of the 1999/2000 season, that the Irishman favours.

Stephen Carr versus Sunderland

May, 2000

"That (Sunderland strike) was my favourite. People say the 'Manchester United one' but, with the United one, there was a lot of luck," he explained. "You can hit that ball. Anyone can smash it into the top corner. You’re just hitting it and hoping more than anything because, when you’re running with it and hitting it with that pace, when its wet and all, I just caught it really sweet. I was lucky and it flew in.

"With the Sunderland one, it’s more of a technical one. So, that’s my favourite – to lob the keeper from that angle... When people think I crossed that, I didn’t actually cross that – I did mean that."

"It was just the delicacy of it. I think anyone can just smash a ball and you know what, most of the time, they don’t go in, but you get that when they do go in, kind of like mine against United. If you asked me to keep doing that, I wouldn’t get them in. Obviously, you have got the players in the world who are a bit different, the top players. But no, I think there is more luck involved but I think with that Sunderland one, there’s not a lot of luck involved – it’s about having that bit of technical ability in that moment.

"It summed my season (1999/2000) up I suppose. Things happen for you when you are on form, so it probably just summed that year up for me. It was an amazing way to go."

N17 reflections

It's now been over 18 years since Stephen departed north London for pastures new at Newcastle, but Tottenham is still a place he holds dear to his heart.

"Amazing memories, I loved it," he smiled as he reflected on his time at the Club. "It's where I grew up. Obviously, I left, whether that was the right decision or not. People say it wasn't; people say it was – it’s irrelevant now because that’s the past – but the time I had there, I loved every minute of it because I do appreciate that Spurs put me on the path to have a career. So, I try to come back when I can, with my son, because I think what they have done now, it is a proper, proper football club. The set-up is out of this world – one of the best in the world, not Europe, everywhere. I think from where it has come to where it has got to, I think Daniel Levy has done unbelievable. I always look back at it as the best time of my life. I loved it there.

"The fans were always brilliant with me. I had a great rapport with them, so I appreciate that they got behind me and helped me. I played under all sorts of different coaches, learned from all of them from the youth teams all the way up to the first team. Amazing memories."

Returning for a new dawn

Stephen regularly tries to get back to N17 and one of his most recent returns actually saw him don the lilywhite shirt once more as, back in March, 2019, he graced the new pitch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in just its second ever game.

Selected to play in the prestigious Spurs Legends match against Inter Forever in the second test event as we looked to open our world-class home three years ago, Stephen started and played the full 90 minutes in north London.

"The new stadium still feels like White Hart Lane," he admitted. "I remember walking out onto the pitch with Keano (Robbie Keane) and we were talking, saying it still feels like the Lane. It feels the same when you walk out which is quite unique because you usually lose a lot when you go to a new stadium. It is just out of this world though. It still feels quite close, as much as its massive.

"I’ve been there with the atmosphere when it’s been a Champions League night, unbelievable, but what a stadium to play at for players. That and the training ground, they match each other up. It’s just first class everywhere. The job that has been done on it is just phenomenal. It’s the best stadium that I’ve been in by a long way.

"It’s just the arena of Tottenham and even what they have done inside, from the corporate, the lounge areas, the food areas and the dressing rooms – the whole package is just top. I don’t think anybody could argue it’s not the best stadium in the Premier League."

New beginnings

It was in the summer of 2013 that Stephen decided to retire from professional football and, at the same time, also opted to leave the industry behind entirely with the idea of coaching never even entering 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 it is now in another industry where his focus lies as he has launched of his own clothing brand of lounge wear - One of One.

“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 worked 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. Now I have set up an online made to measure clothing brand called One of One – it’s mainly lounge wear. So, I’m actually busy with a few different things at the moment.