I played for Tottenham and Liverpool but call from West Ham legend got me international break against Barcelona and Man United stars
Steven Caulker has had a football career that has taken him all over the world and the Londoner even ended up at AFCON.
After coming up through the Tottenham academy, Caulker's career is not your average pathway as he ended up playing in Wales, Scotland, Turkey and now Spain.
It even included a shock loan spell at Liverpool where Jurgen Klopp played the defender as an auxiliary striker.
If his club career saw him travel the world, his international career saw him clock up even more miles after playing for Sierra Leone at the 2021 AFCON.
Despite already playing for England and for Team GB at the 2012 Olympics, the Feltham-born star received a call from the African nation over representing them at the tournament, which had been delayed a year due to the climate and Covid.
After some persuasion from West Ham legend and talkSPORT pundit Carlton Cole, Caulker said yes — and did not regret it for one second.
He told talkSPORT on Thursday: «It was such an incredible experience. Carlton Cole called me out of the blue about three years ago now.
»He said 'would you consider playing for Sierra Leone?' I said I would but it had never come up on my radar.
«He said 'look, my uncle is there, they've qualified for AFCON, they are really interested in recruiting you and a couple of other boys from Europe to come and bring some experience. Would you up for a conversation?'
»So had the conversation and before I knew it, I was there. I loved it."
Caulker played all three group matches for Sierra Leone at AFCON that year, though they finished third and crashed out of the tournament.
However, they had a tough group including defending champions Algeria and an Ivory Coast side brimming with talent.
Sierra Leone drew against both before losing to
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