Canice Michael Carroll (born 16 January 1999) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a defender for club Chippenham Town. Carroll is a product of the

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

and began his professional career with the club, before moving to

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

in 2018. After loan spells at

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

and

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team currently compete in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They have played their ...

and a short period with

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

, he moved to Scotland to join Queen's Park in 2020. In 2021, Carroll moved into

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

. Born in England, Carroll was capped by the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

at youth level.

Club career

Oxford United

Adept as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, full back or a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, Carroll came through the

at hometown club

and began a scholarship in July 2015. His progression was such that he was offered a -year professional contract in August 2015 and signed it on 5 February 2016. Carroll made his debut for the club as a substitute for Alex MacDonald after 82 minutes of a 2–0

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

Southern Area quarter-final victory over

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club (), often known simply as Dagenham and abbreviated when written to Dag & Red, is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England that play in the , the sixth level of the En ...

on 11 November 2015. He did not feature in the remainder of Oxford's run to the 2016 Football League Trophy Final or in the club's promotion to League One, but was a part of the U18 team which finished the season as

Football League Youth Alliance The Football League Youth Alliance is a youth football competition in England, consisting of four regional divisions. It acts as League 2 of the U18 Professional Development League system. Current structure North West Conference * Accrington ...

Merit League 2 champions. Carroll made seven appearances during the 2016–17 season and was named as the Us' Young Player of the Year. He was an unused substitute during the 2–1

2017 EFL Trophy Final The 2017 EFL Trophy final was an association football match that was played on 2 April 2017 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was played between EFL League One, League One teams Coventry City F.C., Coventry City and Oxford United F.C., Oxford United ...

defeat to

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. Carroll signed a new three-year contract with the club in May 2017. Carroll made something of a breakthrough during the 2017–18 season, making 17 appearances and scoring his only goal for the club, with a header in a 3–2 defeat to

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

on 30 December 2017. He departed the Us on 9 August 2018, having made 25 appearances and scored one goal during seasons as a professional at the

Kassam Stadium The Kassam Stadium (also known as Grenoble Road) is the home of Oxford United F.C., and is named after the ground's owner and former chairman of the football club, Firoz Kassam. The Kassam Stadium was built whilst Oxford United played in Di ...

Brentford

On 9 August 2018, Carroll signed a two-year contract with the B team at

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

for an undisclosed fee, with the option of a further year. He featured regularly for the B team and was an unused substitute on one occasion for the first team before joining League Two club

on loan until the end of the 2018–19 season in January 2019. Deployed predominantly as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, Carroll made 17 appearances and scored one goal during his spell. Despite being a member of the Brentford first team's Austrian

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events ...

during the 2019–20

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

, Carroll joined League Two club

on loan for the duration of the 2019–20 season. On 10 August 2019, his second match for the club, Carroll received the first

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or di ...

of his career, for a "two-footed lunge" on Jordan Lyden during a 3–2 defeat to former club Swindon Town. The loan was ended on 31 January 2020, by which time he had made 16 appearances and scored one goal. Later that day, Carroll transferred away from Brentford.

Stevenage

On 31 January 2020, Carroll transferred to League Two club

on a contract running until the end of the 2019–20 season. Prior to the season being ended early, he made four appearances and was released when his contract expired.

Queen's Park

On 2 November 2020, Carroll signed a contract running until the end of the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season with

Scottish League Two The Scottish League Two, known as William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill League Two for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association football, foo ...

club Queen's Park. He made his debut later that day in a 0–0

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...

group stage draw with Rangers B. Carroll made 14 appearances during the remainder of the Spiders' Scottish League Two championship-winning season and was released when his contract expired.

Oxford City

On 4 August 2021, Carroll signed a one-year contract with

National League South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National League (English football), National Leagues and step ...

club Oxford City. He made 28 appearances and scored two goals during a 2021–22 season which concluded with defeat in the National League South playoff semi-finals. Carroll signed a new one-year contract in June 2022. He made 52 appearances in all competitions, scoring three goals, during the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

promotion-winning season. Carroll signed a new one-year contract in June 2023 and made 33 appearances during a 2023–24 season which concluded with immediate relegation back to the Conference South. Carroll ended his three-season spell on 113 appearances and seven goals.

Salisbury and return to Oxford City

On 26 October 2024, Carroll joined National League South club

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

. After making 16 appearances, he signed a short-term contract with Oxford City on 17 February 2025. Carroll made 11 appearances during the remainder of the 2024–25 season and was released when his contract expired. He made 124 appearances and scored seven goals across his two spells at Marsh Lane.

Chippenham Town

On 23 June 2025, Carroll transferred to National League South club Chippenham Town.

International career

Carroll has been capped by the Republic of Ireland at U17, U18 and U19 level. He was nominated for the International U17 Player of the Year award at the 2016

FAI International Football Awards The FAI International Football Awards is an awards evening held to honour the best Republic of Ireland international footballers of the year. Senior International awards Senior International Player of the Year Senior Women's International Pl ...

. Carroll was named in the U21 squad for the

2019 Toulon Tournament The 2019 Toulon Tournament (officially ) was the 47th edition of the Toulon Tournament. It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 1 to 15 June 2019. England were the defending champions but they were eliminated in the group stage. I ...

and made one appearance in the tournament, with a start in a

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...

defeat to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

U22 in the third place play-off.

Personal life

Carroll attended

Cherwell School The Cherwell School is a secondary school with academy status on the Marston Ferry Road in Oxford, England. The current school site was built in 1963 as a secondary modern school, later becoming the main comprehensive school for North Oxford, ...

Career statistics

Honours

Oxford United *

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

runner-up: 2016–17 Queen's Park *

Oxford City *

play-offs:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Oxfordshire Senior Cup The Oxfordshire Senior Cup is the senior county cup of the Oxfordshire Football Association. The competition was first contested in the 1884–85 season. Culham College won the inaugural tournament in 1985. Banbury Harriers were the first foo ...

: 2021–22 Individual *

Young Player of the Year: 2016–17

References

External links

*
Canice Carroll
at fai.ie * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Canice Living people 1999 births Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers English men's footballers English people of Irish descent Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Oxford United F.C. players English Football League players Brentford F.C. players Footballers from Oxford Swindon Town F.C. players Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Carlisle United F.C. players Stevenage F.C. players Queen's Park F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Oxford City F.C. players National League (English football) players Salisbury F.C. players 21st-century English sportsmen 21st-century Irish sportsmen Chippenham Town F.C. players