The Story of Steven Caulker: Mental Health Battles, a Liverpool Stint, and His 17th Club

Steven Caulker’s career has always been measured in extremes. A decade ago the south-west Londoner was scoring on his England debut and being hailed as the nation’s next great centre-half; this summer he turned up in Iceland and was greeted by a few hundred locals outside his new club, Stjarnan FC’s tiny ground, while posing with a shirt that makes him the most decorated signing in the league’s history. Stjarnan are his 17th senior club - a number that feels less like a CV and more like a calendar.

Steven Caulker has left Wigan less than a month after joining them.

(Via: @reluctantnicko)#WAFC pic.twitter.com/PgCT1gocG4

— Second Tier podcast (@secondtierpod) February 3, 2023

The Beginnings - And The First Cracks

Caulker’s ascent was vertiginous. It started with a teenage loan at Swansea which earned him Premier League raves, and by November 2012 he was heading England in front against Sweden. Spurs insiders spoke of a “new Ledley King”, yet even while the hype built, Caulker was falling apart. He later admitted that, as a 19-year-old on big money, he had discovered gambling as a release valve for the pressure. “I’ve sat here for years hating myself … this year was almost the end,” he told The Guardian in a brutally honest 2017 interview, revealing alcohol binges, payday-loan debts and suicidal thoughts.

That confession shocked English football, as for the first time a Premier League regular had laid bare the hidden cost of hype, which included insomnia after night matches, hours spent driving aimlessly because he “couldn’t face four walls”, and rehab stints no-one at his clubs knew about.

Steven Caulker has said he’s been rejected for a TV job because Bet365 sponsor the broadcaster and they were “nervous about some of his positive work” on gambling after being open about his addiction 🤯 pic.twitter.com/kFQ8LEWjDB

— The Big Step (@the_bigstep) November 14, 2023

Of course though, the public saw only the footballing chaos. There were permanent moves to Cardiff and QPR, a fruitless loan at Southampton and, in January 2016, one of the strangest transfers in Premier League history. Jürgen Klopp, short of defenders and even shorter of tall strikers, borrowed Caulker for six months. “If they play long balls you need headers - Steven Caulker is the best solution,” Klopp smiled when asked why he had signed a centre-back to chase goals.

Caulker duly came off the bench against Arsenal and Manchester United - up front - helping salvage a 3-3 draw in the first match and winning a late corner in the second. He played 92 Premier League minutes for Liverpool, 38 of them as an emergency No. 9, and still laughs at the enduring chant “Steven Cannavaro” whenever he visits Anfield.

Rock Bottom And A New Passport

By his mid-twenties Caulker had left QPR by mutual consent and disappeared from the English top flight. He resurfaced in Turkey with Alanyaspor and at the same time he switched international allegiance to Sierra Leone, which was his father’s birthplace and captained the Leone Stars at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations. “I had to hit rock bottom to be where I am today,” he reflected last year. He credited therapy, AA meetings and daily gratitude lists for the turnaround.

Chapter Seventeen: Iceland

June 2025 delivered the latest left-field twist to Caulker's career. A LinkedIn advert for a player-coach brought Caulker to Stjarnan, a club famous for choreographed goal celebrations more than silverware. He signed a 18-month deal that includes weekly addiction-awareness workshops for the academy and an open invitation to local recovery groups. “My journey back to the Premier League begins here,” he wrote tongue-in-cheek on LinkedIn.

📝 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗟 𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗘: Steven Caulker has signed with Stjarnan FC in Iceland as player/assistant manager.

(Source: @FCStjarnan) pic.twitter.com/htCmrnJJ8R

— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) July 1, 2025

Stjarnan officials admit the 33-year-old’s arrival is “the biggest coup in Icelandic football”, and the defender says he relishes the quiet. Training pitches set against snow-tipped mountains feel a world away from the headlines that once screamed his name.