721 Roy Carroll

Biography

Roy Eric Carroll was raised in Tamlaght, a village near Enniskillen in County Fermanagh on the western fringes of Northern Ireland. The goalkeeper had come to Hull City’s attention playing for local side Ballinamallard United in the Northern Irish Football League – he joined the Tigers when he turned eighteen years of age in September 1995.

After a short spell learning his trade alongside fellow Ulsterman netminder Alan Fettis, Carroll made his first team debut in January 1996 and immediately impressed with his command of the box and shot-stopping ability. Roy was making his name in a City side that was sliding into the fourth tier under Terry Dolan and was City’s stand-out player throughout 1996. After three months out of the first team between November 1996 and January 1997, Carroll returned to first team action and attracted the attention of several scouts from higher divisions. In April 1997 Carroll joined Wigan Athletic for a £350,000 fee, the largest fee paid by the Latics at that time. The fee was needed by the potless Tigers to pay an Inland Revenue debt, plus it was reputed that Dolan bagged 15% of the transfer fee – an odd motivational tactic for a football manager charged with building a successful squad. Later, the 20% sell-on clause Dolan placed on any future transfer was cashed in for £80,000 by City chairman Nick Buchanan, thereby saying goodbye to a half a million reward when Carroll eventually moved to Manchester United. Grim times.

Having joined League Division 2 side Wigan Athletic in April 1997, Roy made his Latics debut against Chesterfield in August 1997 was the first choice goalkeeper for four seasons. He missed only a handful of matches in the 1998/99 season as Wigan lifted the Football League Trophy after defeating Millwall in the April 1999 Wembley final and also reached the end of season play-offs only to lose to Manchester City at the semi-final stage. For the next two seasons Wigan again reached the play-offs – in the 1999/00 season the Latics, without injured Carroll, lost to Gillingham in the final, then in the 2000/01 season they were eliminated by Reading in the semi-final. Carroll could reasonably have claimed that he done his bit to help Wigan out of League Division 2 and he left the club in July 2001 having made 169 appearances.

In July 2001 Premier League side Manchester United paid £3 million for Carroll’s signature, working alongside Fabien Barthez and Tim Howard over the next four seasons. he made his Premier League debut against Aston Villa in August 2001 but was used mostly as a substitute goalkeeper for the 2001/02 season, making 10 appearances that included an October 2001 Champions League start against Lille OSC. For the next two seasons Roy played a similar supporting role as the Red Devils won the Premier League title in 2002/03 season and lifted the FA Cup in May 2004, defeating Millwall in the Millennium Stadium final – Roy played the last six minutes of the final after coming off the bench to replace Tim Howard.

In September 2004 Carroll took over the goalkeeper’s jersey at Manchester United on a regular basis for the first time, missing only seven league games during the remainder of the 2004/05 season. In January 2005 he made a notorious “save” when he clawed back a shot from Tottenham’s Pedro Mendes that had clearly crossed the goal-line, only for no goal to be awarded. Having failed to gain assurances that he would be first choice goalkeeper for the 2005/06 season, Carroll elected to not sign a new contract with Manchester United and left on a free transfer in July 2005 – in four years he made 72 appearances for the club.

In July 2005 Roy signed for Premier League side West Ham United. A first team starter during the first part of the 2005/06 season, Carroll sustained a back injury that sidelined him for several months – during this extended lay-off period Roy later admitted publicly that he developed problems with depression, alcohol abuse and a gambling addiction. He returned to first team action fleetingly in the 2006/07 season and left the Hammers in July 2007 having made 35 senior appearances.

In July 2007 Carroll joined Scottish Premiership giants Glasgow Rangers on a one year deal. Although the move was designed to secure Roy more first team football, he made only 1 senior appearance for Rangers in a September 2007 League Cup tie against East Fife. In January 2008 he joined Premier League side Derby County, a club midway through a season that culminated in a record breaking low points tally. With Carroll starting every league match between February and May 2008, Derby secured no victories and were relegated to the Championship. Roy started the 2008/09 season as first choice goalkeeper but fell out of favour when new manager Nigel Clough joined the Rams in January 2009. He left the club in June 2009 having made 38 appearances.

In August 2009 Carroll joined Danish Superliga side Odense BK and quickly rediscovered his form, becoming the League’s Goalkeeper of the Year in his first season. In December 2010, after 59 appearances for the Danish club, Odense terminated Roy’s contract so that he could return to the United Kingdom – in May 2011 he was briefly caretaker manager for Barnet and won the Hertfordshire Senior Cup in his only match in charge. After several unsuccessful trials with English clubs Roy headed to Aegean Sea in August 2011 to sign for Greek Super League side OFI Crete where he made 16 appearances in five months. His form, coupled with his new-found sobriety after giving up alcohol, encouraged Greek Super League rivals Olympiacos Piraeus to sign Carroll in January 2012, where he saved a penalty with his first touch in a Europa League tie. He spent two seasons in the Athens suburbs, making 34 appearances and being part of the extended squads that won one Super League title and claimed two Greek Cup victories – Roy won two Cup winners’ medals when he started the April 2012 final against Atromitos and the May 2013 final that saw Asteras Tripolis defeated in extra time.

In August 2014 Carroll followed the rarely trodden path between Olympiacos and Notts County, signing for the League One side on a two year deal. He missed only one league game for the Magpies during the 2014/15 season but dropped to the bench in March 2016 and left in July 2016 having made 85 appearances – in November 2014 he played an international for Northern Ireland and a League fixture for the Magpies in the space of twenty four hours.

In July 2016 Roy returned to Northern Ireland and signed for Belfast side Linfield. He debuted for Linfield in a June 2016 Europa League tie against Cork City and played regular football for nearly three years. He won two league title winners’ medals at the end of the 2016/17 and 2018/19 seasons and played well past his fortieth birthday until a cruciate ligament injury sidelined him in January 2019. Roy left Linfield in July 2019 having made 99 appearances, at which point he retired from playing – save for brief returns to Northern Irish league sides Dungannon Swifts (January to July 2021, 20 appearances) and his first club Balinamallard United (January 2023, 1 appearance).

Once his playing days were over Roy worked with a footballers’ agency in Northern Ireland and contributed to the Northern Ireland FA’s elite player development programme as goalkeeper coach. In April 2025 Carroll was appointed to the coaching staff at ultra-ambitious Saudi Arabian side Neom SC, a club based in the new linear city of Neom and destined for the Saudi Pro League.

Carroll was a Northern Ireland youth international while playing in Northern Ireland and in May 1998 he made his debut for the Northern Ireland Under-21 side against Scotland – in October 1999 he made the last of his 11 Under-21 appearances against Finland. He made his Northern Ireland senior debut before those Under-21 appearances, in May 1997 against Thailand, indeed he had been an unused substitute for the senior squad in August 1996 while still on Hull City’s books. For fifteen years Carroll was an occasional starter for the Northern Ireland, also spending time on the bench many times. In June 2012, his 20th cap, Roy finally made the Northern Ireland jersey his own for two seasons and stayed around the international squad for three more seasons, winning the last of his 45 senior caps against New Zealand in June 2017.

Details

Nationality: Northern Ireland
Date/Place of Birth: 30 September 1977, Enniskillen
Hull City First Game: 20 January 1996, Swindon Town A (League Division 2), 18 years, 112 days old
Hull City Final Game: 1 March 1997, Northampton Town H (League Division 3), 19 years, 152 days old

Clubs

Ballinamallard United, Hull City (1995-1997), Wigan Athletic (1997-2001), Manchester United (2001-2005), West Ham United (2005-2007), Glasgow Rangers (2007-2008), Derby County (2008-2009), Odense BK (2009-2011), OFI Crete (2011-2012), Olympiacos (2012-2014), Notts County (2014-2016), Linfield (2016-2019), Dungannon Swifts (2021), Ballinamallard United (2023)

Hull City Record

Career: 50 apps, 0 goals