Steven Caulker
Steven Roy Caulker is a former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Born in England, he represented and captained the Sierra Leone national team.
Caulker started his professional career with Tottenham Hotspur in 2009. He spent three seasons on loan with Yeovil Town, Bristol City and Swansea City. At Swansea he made his first appearances in the Premier League and at the end of the season played for Britain at the 2012 Olympics. In November 2012 he made a scoring England debut in a friendly against Sweden.
He was sold to newly promoted Cardiff City for the 2013–14 season but was unable to prevent their relegation from the Premier League. He was subsequently sold to Queens Park Rangers for the following 2014–15 season; who themselves were relegated. He spent the next few seasons largely on loan to Southampton and Liverpool before playing half a season for Dundee in the Scottish Premiership. He then joined Turkish Süper Lig team Alanyaspor in January 2019. After a successful spell there, Caulker signed with top Turkish club Fenerbahçe, but would spend his lone season there on loan with Gaziantep and never play for Fener. Caulker returned to England with Wigan Athletic, but left amid issues with the club failing to pay players. After this, Caulker had a brief stint as player-manager of Spanish side FC Málaga City before having to leave due to issues with his work visa.
Background
Caulker was born in Feltham in the London Borough of Hounslow. He is a member of the Caulker family of Sierra Leone. Caulker attended Staines Preparatory School and was borough champion at 400m for four consecutive seasons.Club career
Tottenham Hotspur
A talented athlete as a teenager, Caulker chose to pursue a career in football, playing his early football with Hounslow Borough, his local club. After initially playing as a central midfielder, he acted on advice from a coach and made the switch to central defence. After a single match at centre back for Hounslow at the age of 15, he was offered trials with seven clubs including Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Reading and Queens Park Rangers. Caulker joined the Tottenham Hotspur youth team and broke into the Under-18s team as a 15-year-old during the 2007–08 season. During the 2008–09 season, Caulker progressed to make 31 appearances and score one goal for the Under-18s, captaining the team towards the start of that season. In the same season, he also made five appearances for the reserve team. He impressed during his first season as a full-time scholar and signed his first professional contract at Tottenham in July 2009.Loan to Yeovil Town
In July 2009, Caulker went on loan to League One club Yeovil Town along with teammate Ryan Mason. He made his league debut at the start of the 2009–10 season against Tranmere Rovers, where Yeovil won 2–0. After impressing in Yeovil's 0–0 draw with Oldham, Caulker made the Football League Team of the Week. Along with fellow Tottenham loanees Ryan Mason and Jonathan Obika, on 5 November 2009, his loan was extended until the end of the 2009–10 season. On 1 March 2010, Caulker was included in the Team of the Week for a second time following the 1–0 home win against MK Dons. Caulker returned to Spurs one match early after starting 44 of Yeovil's 45 league matches, having missed only one match due to playing for England U19s, also taking four of Yeovil's five end of season awards. In November 2013, he was selected to be part of Yeovil Town's 'Team of the Decade', which was voted for by the club's fans to commemorate their tenth season as a Football League club. Caulker was the only loan player to be chosen.Loan to Bristol City
After returning from the U19 European Championships and a successful loan spell Caulker was awarded with a new contract until 2013. In early August a Daily Mirror report suggested Caulker may again be loaned out, this time to Championship club Leeds United, in a bid to continue his development through regular competitive football, but this deal fell through when Caulker sustained a groin injury. He made his Tottenham debut in a 4–1 home defeat, after extra time, against Arsenal in the League Cup on 21 September 2010.Just five days after his Tottenham debut, Caulker was loaned out to Championship club Bristol City until the end of the season where he joined Spurs teammate Danny Rose. He made his Bristol City debut in the 3–1 away defeat to Portsmouth. In his 50th professional match, on 16 October, Caulker scored his first goal in Bristol City's 3–2 defeat against Cardiff City. Thanks to his outstanding form helping guide Bristol City away from the relegation zone, Caulker was rewarded with Young Player of the Month for the npower Football League for November. Caulker scored his second goal of the season with an injury time equaliser in the 2–2 draw with Queens Park Rangers, on 3 January 2011. On 28 March 2011 his season was cut short due to a knee cartilage injury which ruled him out for the rest of the 2010–11 season and so returned to Tottenham for treatment and surgery on his ankle. His 30-match loan spell received praise from both manager Keith Millen and former England goalkeeper David James, described in his Observer column as 'quality' and one of Bristol City's 'best players'.
Caulker won Bristol City's Young Player of the Year award for the 2010–11 season and was a nominee for Player of the Year.
Loan to Swansea City
In early June 2011, Caulker was linked to a further season-long loan move to help continue his development through regular football, this time to newly promoted Premier League clubs Swansea City and Norwich City, as well as another stint at Bristol City. On 1 July 2011, Caulker officially joined Swansea City on a season-long loan, with Swansea paying an initial fee for his services and an option to review the loan in January. Former member of Spurs' backroom staff and Newport County manager Anthony Hudson described Caulker as having the "potential to be one of the best defenders in country". Hudson said during his time at Bristol City, Caulker was "the best defender in the Championship" and described him as "one to watch this season because I think he's going to be a real star". He made his Premier League and Swansea City debut in the 4–0 away defeat to Manchester City, playing the full 90 minutes. After featuring in all of Swansea's first four Premier League and keeping two clean sheets, Caulker suffered a knee cartilage injury when he collided with a goalpost in Swansea's match against Arsenal. The injury ruled him out for around eight weeks. Despite initially targeting his return for the match against Manchester United on 19 November 2011, Caulker returned to action after three months out in the 2–0 home victory over Fulham on 10 December 2011. Caulker became a mainstay for the remainder of Swansea's Premier League campaign and made 26 starts overall, helping the club finish 11th in the Premier League.Return to Tottenham
On 5 July 2012, Caulker signed a new four-year contract with Tottenham Hotspur until the summer of 2016. Having been an unused substitute at the start of the season, on 20 September 2012, Caulker made his European debut in the UEFA Europa League group stage match against Lazio, helping his team keep a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw and having a goal harshly disallowed. The following weekend, Caulker made his Premier League debut for Tottenham Hotspur as a half-time substitute in the 2–1 home victory over Queens Park Rangers. Caulker retained his place and received his first Tottenham league start in the next match against Manchester United, with Tottenham eventually winning the match 3–2, breaking a 23-year winless run at Old Trafford. After the match, centre back partner William Gallas praised Caulker for his performance and felt in time he would become one of the best defenders in England. On 7 October 2012, Caulker scored his first goal for Tottenham in their 2–0 home win against Aston Villa, redirecting a Jermain Defoe shot into the back of the net in the 58th minute of the match. He scored his second goal for the club on 11 November 2012, opening the scoring with a header in a 2–1 defeat away to Manchester City. Caulker finished the season having made 28 appearances in all competitions for Tottenham, scoring two goals.Cardiff City
On 31 July 2013, newly promoted Premier League club Cardiff City signed Caulker from Tottenham for a club record fee in excess of £8 million, on a four-year contract. Caulker made his Cardiff debut in their first league match of the season a 2–0 defeat against West Ham United, on 17 August 2013. Caulker scored his second league goal for Cardiff in a 1–0 home win against former loan club and rivals Swansea City, the winning goal in the first ever South Wales derby in the Premier League.On 8 March 2014, he scored twice in a 3–1 win against Fulham. Caulker was ever-present for Cardiff in the Premier League playing every minute of the campaign scoring five goals, but was unable to prevent them from suffering relegation back to the Championship.