Steven Caulker

Tottenham Hotspur

A talented athlete as a teenager, Caulker chose to pursue a career in football, playing his early football with Hounslow Borough, his local club. After initially playing as a central midfielder, he acted on advice from a coach and made the switch to central defence. After a single match at centre back for Hounslow at the age of 15, he was offered trials with seven clubs including Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Reading and Queens Park Rangers. Caulker joined the Tottenham Hotspur youth team and broke into the Under-18s team as a 15-year-old during the 2007–08 season. During the 2008–09 season, Caulker progressed to make 31 appearances and score one goal for the Under-18s, captaining the team towards the start of that season. In the same season, he also made five appearances for the reserve team. He impressed during his first season as a full-time scholar and signed his first professional contract at Tottenham in July 2009.

Loan to Yeovil Town

In July 2009, Caulker went on loan to League One club Yeovil Town along with teammate Ryan Mason. He made his league debut at the start of the 2009–10 season against Tranmere Rovers, where Yeovil won 2–0. After impressing in Yeovil's 0–0 draw with Oldham, Caulker made the Football League Team of the Week. Along with fellow Tottenham loanees Ryan Mason and Jonathan Obika, on 5 November 2009, his loan was extended until the end of the 2009–10 season. On 1 March 2010, Caulker was included in the Team of…

Born and raised in England, with a Sierra Leonean paternal grandfather, and Scottish maternal grandmother, Caulker was eligible to play internationally for England, Scotland, or Sierra Leone.

England

Under-19

Caulker was named along with fellow Spurs loanee Ryan Mason in the England U19s for three European Championship qualification matches in Slovenia, appearing in matches against Finland and Slovenia. Caulker achieved his third and fourth caps for the U19s in friendlies against Turkey and the Netherlands respectively. Caulker was again included in the England U19 squad for the Elite Round of qualification in Ukraine for the European Championships. Caulker played the full 90 minutes of England U19's first two matches, beating Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina 1–0 and 4–0 respectively. Caulker also played the full 90 minutes in the final match against Ukraine, a 1–1 draw enough to take England through to the European Championships by winning Group 3 of the Elite qualification round. Caulker was again called up for the final 18-man squad for the European Championships, for group matches against Austria, the hosts France and the Netherlands. Caulker started all three group matches, a 3–2 win over Austria, a 1–0 defeat to the Netherlands and a 1–1 draw with France confirming England's progress to the semi-final stage. England reached the semi-finals, where Caulker earned his 11th cap as England lost 3–1 to Spain. Caulker had started all of England's…

After experience working in player-coach roles in Spain and Iceland, Caulker was appointed as assistant manager at Süper Lig side Konyaspor in February 2026.

On 5 November 2011, Caulker was arrested for a public order offence after an incident in Swansea city centre. He was issued with a fixed penalty notice and later released. Caulker later revealed that his arrest was for swearing in the street and apologised to the club and his manager Brendan Rodgers for getting caught-up in the late night offence. In June 2017, Caulker was interviewed by The Guardian and discussed his problems with alcohol, gambling addiction and depression. Caulker acknowledged that his problems had damaged his football career and had led him to consider suicide. In November 2023 it was revealed he was dropped as a pundit as sponsor Bet365 were nervous about his previous positive work about gambling addiction.