Steven Caulker Signs as Player-Manager for FC Malaga City

Steven Caulker, 31, has signed as the player-manager for FC Malaga City.

Centre-back Caulker, a Sierra Leone international, is an experienced player with over 380 professional appearances for Tottenham Hotspur, Yeovil Town, Bristol City, Swansea City, Cardiff City, Queens Park Rangers, Southampton, and Liverpool where he made three appearances as a second striker.

He also had a stint in Turkey with several clubs, most notably Alanyaspor, where he made 85 appearances and scored six goals.

FC Malaga City are an academy team that play in the Tercera Federación, which is the fifth tier of Spanish football and is split into 18 regional groups. City play in group 9.

FC Malaga City are not connected with their namesake, Malaga CF, but do play in the same league as Malaga B, the academy of the Primera Federación side.

In a match on November 11 2023, Malaga City FC lost 3-1 at home to Malaga B.

Caulker is the most high-profile player in the league, and as a player-manager, appears to be taking his first steps into his managerial career. At the age of 31, he is old to be signing for a youth academy but also young to be transitioning out of top-level football into management.

By moving away from top-level football, he mirrors the likes of Jack Wilshere who retired from football last year, also aged 31, to manage the Arsenal under-18s.

Caulker has often been outspoken in his career, particularly about gambling addiction in high-level football and drawing on his own experiences with rehabilitation.

In an interview in October 2023 with Rob Wotton on Sky Sports News following Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali’s 10-month ban, Caulker said: “It’s extremely difficult to stop, especially alone without support.

“I’ve been to rehab twice to tackle this addiction. I wish I could say that I went to rehab in 2016 and I am seven years clean, but it doesn’t work like that. There are many challenges I face in a daily battle and I know other players have the same.

“Players or non-players, we all have issues in our own way, and gambling unfortunately is coming more to light.”

Caulker is the captain of the Sierra Leone national team and had been without a club since he left Wigan in July until he joined FC Malaga City.

Caulker, a product of Tottenham Hotspur Academy, will take the reins of Malaga City who are partnered with Spurs, highlighting the relationship between the clubs.

Through the partnership, Spurs provide informative and interactive coach education workshops in Spain, as well as hosting quarterly training camps for academy players at their new training facilities.

Caulker will take to either the dugout or the pitch on January 7 when FC Malaga City face Almeria B in group 9 of the Tercera Federación.