After leaving West Ham, Carroll spent two years rebuilding his fitness at his boyhood club Newcastle, before dropping into the Championship with Reading.

He explains that those long spells on the sidelines in England have inspired his late career and delayed any thoughts of retirement.

“I haven’t really focused on finishing yet, so I can’t even think about what I’m going to do afterwards,” he says.

“If I wasn’t a professional footballer, I’d be playing it as a hobby. So, I’m just fortunate that I’m still playing at my age at the level where I’m enjoying it and getting paid for it.

“When I signed for Amiens, it was just a different way of life – just quiet and relaxed. Walking down the street was fine.

“I’ve been at the top level where people are on £100,000-a-week, and then you come to France and the lads are on nowhere near that, and they’re coming in every day, working hard and with a smile on their face. And we’re going home, having barbecues and stuff like that.

“It’s just a completely different way of life and it’s just brilliant. It’s just exactly what I wanted and exactly what I needed in my life.”

Carroll is running his property business in the north east and regularly travels back to London to see his family.

“My sons keep saying, ‘Oh, you should go into management’. But I’ll keep saying well, ‘hopefully, one day, you’re old enough that you can join me and be my strike partner in the same team playing with each other,” he smiles.

“They are really good players. So that’s probably more my dream than retiring and doing something else.”