How Andy Carroll is happier than ever earning €2,500 a month at 4th tier French club which doesn't even cover his rent... but will 'messy' divorce from wife Billi Mucklow burst his bubble?
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From spending £5,000 within minutes in Harrods, to his limited edition Mercedes costing more than £100,000 and living in an Essex mansion with his reality star girlfriend, Andy Carroll certainly filled out the footballer bingo card in his heyday.
Now playing for French fourth-tier side Bordeaux, on face value it looks like quite a fall from grace for the striker who was once the eighth most expensive player in the world, and the Premier League's most costly signing ever when he transfered from Newcastle United to Liverpool in 2011.
However, the father-of-five has insisted that he couldn't be happier with his new life in France, despite his modest salary by football standards - which is said to be less than €2,500 a month, compared to his £80,000-a-week wages at Liverpool.
The 35-year-old has even admitted that it's costing him money to play for the troubled club, who had their professional license removed and were relegated to France's fourth division after being declared bankrupt during a turbulent summer.
Speaking to French outlet L’Equipe, Carroll said: 'I won’t tell you the exact figure but to give you an idea, since I moved here, I rent a pretty little house and my salary is less than my rent. If I joined Bordeaux, it clearly wasn’t for the money.'
He insists he's doing it for the love of the game and with a goal of restoring the six-time Ligue 1 winning club to its former glory in mind, he's hoping to keep playing until he's 40.
Carroll insists he loves the privacy and normality that life in France gives him after initially moving in 2023 to play for Amiens before joining FC Girondins de Bordeaux.
Last month, it was announced that he'd split from his wife Billi Mucklow, a former TOWIE star and yoga teacher, and their divorce is said to have turned 'nasty' after he went public with his new girlfriend, the celebrity make-up artist Lou Teasdale.
According to a source, Billie is 'determined to get everything she can - including the house'.
Amid such a turbulent period in his personal life, some peace and quiet is no doubt very welcome, and he's waxed lyrical about going to the pub to watch football with his mates and playing darts without anyone bothering him.
The Gateshead native arrived in France in 2023, where he initially signed for Amiens, a second division club, after he exercised a release clause in his contract to leave Reading.
At 32-years-old, having struggled with injuries for large portions of his career and after turning out for the likes of Newcastle, Liverpool and West Ham - in addition to earning nine caps for England - you would have forgive Carroll for wanting to call it quits altogether.
But he wasn't done with football and told his agent to find him a club abroad.
'I wanted a challenge. A challenge in a completely different country. A fresh start.' He exclusively told Mail Sport in January. 'I spoke to my agent and said, "Get me a club abroad".
'I came here and it was the one. It's a one and half hour drive to Calais and I can get the shuttle back to Epping (the family home).
'Here I can take my kids to the zoo here and they're not saying, "Come on, Dad", because people are asking for photos or autographs. There's a little pub around the corner where me and a couple of the boys went to watch Newcastle beat PSG the other week. What a game! No one said a word to me.'
During his 12 months at Amiens, wife Billi Mucklow remained at home in Essex with three of Carroll's five children, but the family were regular visitors.
Instagram snaps shows them paying visits to Paris and enjoying family days out closer to home on the beach at the seaside resort Le Touquet-Paris - an hour from Amiens.
As well as attending their dad's matches, Billi and the kids enjoyed sampling the local cuisine and visited the Cathédrale Notre-Dame in Amiens to light candles.
However, Carroll's first taste of French football wasn't an especially good one, just four goals in 31 appearances, from 16 starts, across all competitions was a tame return.
Given their plight, his move to Gironde still came as a surprise. According to L'Equipe, it was Amiens sporting director John Williams who played a key role in convincing Carroll to drop down and join Bordeaux. Although Williams remains in his role at Amiens, he has reportedly been involved in helping Bordeaux build a new squad.
'I joined because it's a great project,' said Carroll in his first interview after the move. 'Unfortunately, the club has been relegated several divisions but it's a big club and we're going to try to put it back where it should be.
'I just love football and it was an opportunity to play for a big French club. The level you play at doesn't matter in the end.'
In addition to his positives statements about the club, the striker also revealed that the financials in the deal were far from ideal.
'To be honest, it's even costing me money to come and play for Bordeaux. But I'm playing football and I am simply happy to be playing football.
'I want to be part of the history of this club and to be honest it's not a question of money. In my career, it's never been a question of money.'
Carroll is believed to be earning around €3,500 a month in his new role and while it would be a comfortable wage for many, living away from the family home naturally creates financial challenges.
There's the cost of renting a property, plus travelling back and forth to see his children Emilie Rose, 15, and Lucas, 14, from a previous relationship with his ex-fiancée Faye Johnstone, and the three he shares with Billi - Arlo, eight, Wolf, five, and Marvel Mae, two.
Billi and Andy tied the knot in 2022 at the Four Seasons in Hampshire during a joyous weekend that included a Coachella-themed party which they cleverly dubbed Carroll Chella.
Just weeks earlier, it seemed the wedding might have been in doubt after Carroll was snapped passed out in bed between two blondes during his raucous Dubai stag-do.
When his move to France came in 2023, Mucklow and the kids remained in Essex, albeit with the intention of eventually joining him on the continent.
But any hope of that was dashed last month with the news that the couple are moving forward with divorce proceedings, having secretly separated earlier in the year.
'It has been a hard few months for our family,' Carroll said in a statement. 'And we continue to move forward amicably for our children.'
Meanwhile a source told The Sun: 'Andy and Billi care about each other a lot and have made some great memories together, but decided it was best for the family if they went their separate ways having grown apart'.
Swiftly after ending things with Mucklow, Carroll has been linked with celebrity makeup artist Lou Teasdale. The 40-year-old has even visited him in Bordeaux.
Teasdale has carved out quite a career for herself as an influencer with six million Instagram followers, two successful businesses and a million-pound house in Hackney which has its own Instagram account – as well as a second property which she is doing up.
She co-owns the hair colouring company Bleach London with her twin sister Samantha Teasdale, which they launched in 2010.
Now with two salons, one in Los Angeles and one in London, the company has raised more than £10million in investment and has sold more than £30million of products in the UK alone.
'You do have to wonder what Andy and Lou have in common, they come from completely different worlds, but they get on really great.' One source told Mail Online.
Earlier this week, the new couple were pictured cosying up on the beach in Mallorca to celebrate Lou's 41st birthday.
They enjoyed a day at Balneario Beach Club, where they could be seen drinking cocktails and glasses of rose and had ice creams delivered to their sun loungers.
With drama going on in his personal life, it's no wonder Carroll is happy to embrace the slower pace in France.
'When I signed for Amiens, it was just a different way of life - just quiet and relaxed. Walking down the street was fine.' Carroll said in an interview with BBC last month.
'I've been at the top level where people are on £100,000-a-week, and then you come to France and the lads are on nowhere near that, and they're coming in every day, working hard and with a smile on their face. And we're going home, having barbecues and stuff like that.
'It's just a completely different way of life and it's just brilliant. It's just exactly what I wanted and exactly what I needed in my life.'
Carroll appears to have found a new equilibrium in Bordeaux, one he is keen to enjoy for many more years to come.
'I want to be part of this project,' he added in his interview with the BBC. 'And perhaps play "another five years until I'm 40. Everything - from the stadium to the training ground - is set up perfectly for what I need and want.'
Carroll may have set social abuzz with clips of him bullying defenders in surroundings reminiscent of a Sunday league pitch in a local park but Bordeaux play their home games in the 42,000-seater Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux.
And let's not forget their status as one of the most successful clubs in France, with a league title acquired more recently than Lyon, Nantes and Saint-Etienne. Carroll has the chance to go down as a club legend if he can help fire Bordeaux back up the divisions where they belong. It would be a remarkable end to an eventful career.
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