Former West Brom, Burnley, QPR and Southampton star worth £13.1m set for non-league transfer

Former West Brom striker Charlie Austin is poised to a club in the non-league.

According to the Daily Echo, Austin has undergone a medical at AFC Totton, who sit in the seventh tier of English football. It is hoped that he could make his debut this weekend in their final pre-season match against Forest Green Rovers ahead of the Southern League Premier season.

Former Southampton and Everton striker James Beattie is the director of football at AFC Totton who have grand ambitions. Austin would represent a series bit of transfer business given he has played in the Premier League.

For all the moves that Austin has made around England, his transfer total comes to about £13.1m according to TransferMarkt. He was signed by Southampton from QPR for around £4m and moved to the Hawthorns for around the same price.

He boasts more than 500 career appearances and has found the back of the net more than 200 times. Austin has 88 goals in the Championship and 34 in the Premier League, and like Jamie Vardy made the route from the non-league to the Premier League, starting out with Kintbury Rangers in 2006, before getting his chance qith QP in the Premier League eigh years later.

Austin, who joined West Brom in August 2019, scored 11 goals in 45 games for the Baggies, and finished as their top scorer in the 2019/20 season as they won promotion to the Premier League under Slaven Bilic. He was allowed to return to QPR, and he spent a season-and-a-half there, before a brief spell in Australia with Brisbane Roar.

Since January 2023, Austin has been with Swindon Town, and he notched up 23 goals in 68 games, but left the County Ground this summer after his contract expired. Totton are getting a striker that netted 12 goals in League Two for the Robins last year after being ever present.