Former West Brom and Reading star poised for transfer to French non-league club

Former West Brom striker Andy Carroll looks set to make an interesting step in his career, with a move to a French non-league team in the pipeline.

According to well respected French newspaper L'Equipe, Carroll is on the move again, where he will drop two divisions to join Bordeaux, from Amiens. John Williams was the sporting director of Amiens, but moved to Bordeaux, where he is trying to assemble a team that is capable of getting back in to professional football, after they were demoted by two divisions.

Last season, Bordeaux were in Ligue One, but were relegated, and then lost their professional status, before being hit with the news that the French FA would be placing them in the fourth tier. Bordeaux have so far played three games in the Championnat National 2, and are currently second from bottom.

Their first match at that level was played at the Saint-Germaine Stadium, which holds a capacity of 5,000 but they will return to the 42,115 capacity Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux shortly according to Bleu Gironde.

Carroll has four goals in 35 games to date for Amiens, having joined them at the end of August 2023. He's played in all four of their opening Ligue 2 matches, but has started just the once and has yet to find the back of the net this term.

A move to Bordeaux would represent the eighth club of Carroll's career. He began with Newcastle United in 2006, and was sold to Liverpool for a reported £35m in January 2011. During his time at Anfield he won a Carabao Cup winner's medal, but then departed for West Ham on loan, before signing with them permanently.

Carroll returned to St James Park' for a second spell, before dropping down to the Championship with Reading in 2021. His time at the Royals was short as he joined West Brom, and he scored three goals in 15 games, whilst Valerien Ismael, and Steve Bruce were in charge.

He was allowed to re-join Reading, and spent the 2022/23 campaign there, scoring nine goals in a season he suffered relegation, and then just a few games in to the last campaign, he departed for France.