Burnley players celebrate victory as Steven Caldwell of Burnley holds the trophy during the Coca-Cola Championship Playoff Final against Sheffield United (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)
With only 12 miles separating Newcastle and Sunderland (as well as one level on the footballing pyramid), the Tyne-Wear Derby is regarded as one of the fiercest rivalries in English football. Newcastle have won 54, Sunderland have won 53, whilst there have been 50 stalemates since their first encounter in 1888. The derby has reached a fever pitch in recent decades and been fraught with fan hooliganism.
In 2002, the Seaburn Casuals faced off against the Newcastle Gremlins in a pre-arranged clash of warring hooligan groups representing Sunderland and Newcastle, regarded as some of the worst football-related fighting ever witnessed in the United Kingdom. For their troubles, 28 members of the two gangs were jailed for four years for conspiracy, whilst the following year would see 200 Newcastle and Sunderland fans clash in the Sunderland city center before England’s Euro qualifier vs. Turkey, with various fans pelting the police with bottles, cans and wheel trims – 95 of them being arrested. Since the start of the century, only two players have had the courage to directly swap sides in the Tyne-Wear Derby: Robbie Elliott, who left Newcastle for Sunderland in 2006, and Steven Caldwell, who left Newcastle for Sunderland in 2004.
“It was a brave choice,” admitted Caldwell in an exclusive RG interview, “but I wanted to join a big club in the Championship. I wanted to join a team where I could achieve promotion and stay in Northeast England. I love that area and how passionate the people are about football. I'm probably the only person in the world who loves both Sunderland and Newcastle the same amount – they’re both tremendous football clubs. I got a bit of stick from Newcastle fans but nothing too serious, and in fairness, they understood that I wanted to be playing 40-50 games a season and respected my decision. I’ve been back to St. James’ Park many times and always get a brilliant reaction from Newcastle fans.”
Starting Professional Career in Newcastle
Born in Stirling, Scotland, Caldwell began his footballing career at Hutchison Vale alongside his younger brother Gary before heading to England and joining Newcastle at 14 years of age.
“I was being scouted by a few teams in England and Scotland, and I wanted to be in a bigger environment, and Newcastle kept coming back to me as being the place that I should be. it had a sort of romantic appeal that I wanted to explore.”
Caldwell was given his professional debut under Sir Bobby Robson on September 30, 2000, coming on as a second-half substitute and prevailing with a 1-0 win vs. Manchester City. He racked up 10 appearances across his maiden professional campaign and played in three of their matches in the now-defunct UEFA Intertoto Cup before being sent out on loan to lower-tier sides Blackpool and Bradford City. He returned to Newcastle and emerged as a reliable squad player in central defense and an unsung hero in their UEFA Champions League campaign, but he never quite managed to solidify a starting spot.
He looked set to leave St. James’ Park in 2003 after calling their previous contract effort “an insult,” only to pull a U-Turn and sign a one-year extension, but he continued to struggle for regular minutes and ended up leaving for Leeds United in February 2004. Caldwell quickly became one of the first names on the team sheet for Leeds in their unsuccessful fight to avoid relegation, only to be recalled in the final weeks of the season due to an injury crisis. He was released at the end of the 2003/04 season, ending a decade-long spell that saw him score 2 goals and 1 assist in 37 appearances, and joined Sunderland on a free transfer.
Achieving Promotion Glory at Sunderland and Burnley
It didn’t take long for him to emerge as a fan favorite at the Stadium of Light and get them to forget his Newcastle roots, and the Scottish defender cemented his spot in Sunderland lore when he scored their winning goal vs. Leicester City to secure their promotion to the Premier League.
“We were in a tight fight with Ipswich and Wigan for the top two promotion spots, and we went on our best run at the most important time, winning 11 of our last 13 league matches. When it came to that Leicester game, it was still in the balance. We were drawing 1-1 and not playing well, but to score the decisive goal was amazing. I’m very proud to have a significant role in Sunderland’s history. It was one of my proudest moments Out of all the 16 goals I scored in my career, it was by far the most important.”
In total, Caldwell scored 4 goals in 41 appearances across his maiden campaign in Sunderland and emerged as a vital cog in their return to the top-flight. Caldwell played in 24 of Sunderland’s 38 Premier League matches. The Black Cats ultimately finished bottom of the table and were knocked back down to the second tier, where he continued to play a key role in central defense until eventually joining Burnley.
Caldwell made his Burnley debut on February 3, 2007, playing the full 90 in a 3-1 loss to Queens Park Rangers. The following week, Caldwell wore the captain’s armband in a 1-1 draw vs. Sheffield Wednesday and quickly established himself as a fan favorite and club captain thanks to his unyielding compromise and tough-tackling ability.
After finishing 15th and 13th in his first two seasons at Turf Moor, Caldwell and his team managed to beat the odds by reaching the 2008/09 League Cup semifinals as well as finishing within the coveted top six Championship positions and earning a ticket to the promotion playoffs. Burnley edged Reading 1-0 and 2-0 in the second leg, before prevailing with a 1-0 victory against Sheffield United in the promotion final at Wembley. For the first time in 33 years, Burnley were going to be playing in the top-flight.
“There was always an expectation for Sunderland to achieve promotion, but there was no expectation whatsoever at Burnley. You felt the same spirit and momentum throughout the season, and at the start of the new year, we started to believe we were capable of achieving this. We played a lot of games and had a tight core group, and the confidence was high. To play a final at Wembley with 90,000 people watching was a dream of mine…I’m very proud to have achieved that at Burnley, a club that never dreamt of being at that stage until my team did it.”
Playing Alongside His Brother and Going Against Henry
Whilst groin injuries prevented him from getting consistent minutes in the Premier League, Caldwell nevertheless made 13 appearances as the Clarets finished 18th and suffered relegation. Rather than sticking around in the Championship, Caldwell decided to make the move to Wigan Athletic in the Premier League. Caldwell made history by playing alongside his younger brother Gary in central defense for the first time in their club career, and played 15 times across all competitions before being released. He joined Birmingham City in the summer of 2011, a club that was preparing to do something that has only occurred on a handful of occasions in football history: compete in Europe whilst playing in a lower league. The Bluebirds had beaten Arsenal in the League Cup Final before finishing 18th in the table, and they finished third in the UEFA Europa League group behind Club Brugge and Braga.
Caldwell emerged as one of the first names on Birmingham’s team sheet and wore the armband for the final months of the season as they finished fourth in the Championship, only to narrowly lose to his former club Blackpool in the playoff semifinals. Across his 16-year spell in England, Caldwell played in each of the country’s top three divisions and scored 9 goals and 10 assists in 229 Championship appearances, as well as 3 goals and 2 assists in the Premier League. He went up against some of the finest strikers of the 21st century, but none stood out to him more than a certain French striker from Arsenal.
“Thierry Henry was literally unplayable. He was really special. During the early 2000s, he was the best player in the world…he was impossible to play against.
I played against a lot of great strikers like Wayne Rooney, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Didier Drogba, and Robbie Fowler, but Henry was the best. If Henry was on it, it was impossible to stop him. He could do anything, he could take you on in 1v1s, he had skill and size, power and pace…he had the lot.”
He began the season as a regular starter and captain for Birmingham before picking up an illness in March and losing his place to Paul Robinson. After electing to call it quits on his time in the UK, he headed to the other side of the Atlantic in the summer of 2013, joining MLS side Toronto FC. Just like he had done with Sunderland, Burnley, Birmingham and Scotland, Caldwell was bestowed with the honor of wearing the armband for Toronto within just months of his arrival, helping the team improve from conceding 1.5 goals per game to 1.0 goals per game. He was named the sixth captain in team history and was even given the Player of the Season award by Toronto FC supporter group Red Patch Boys. He played in MLS matches for TFC before succumbing to an Achilles tendon injury at the start of 2015, prompting him to hang up his boots at the age of 34.
Despite enjoying success at the club level in England, Caldwell never quite managed to become a regular for Scotland and achieved just 12 caps between 2001 and 2011, none more important than a match on August 12, 2009. After earning a recall to the national team following a three-year hiatus, Caldwell started alongside his brother for the first time at the professional level: Gary was sent off after 13 minutes, whilst Steven was substituted after halftime in a 4-0 loss to Norway in World Cup qualifying.
12 years after leaving England, Caldwell has remained in Canada and found a new permanent home in Toronto, where he has worked as an in-game and studio analyst for Canadian sports network TSN since 2016. Stay tuned for part two of the interview.
Zach Lowy is a freelance football journalist who has written for leading outlets like FotMob, BetUS, Apuestas Deportivas, and who has appeared as a radio and television guest for BBC, SiriusXMFC, and various other platforms. After pursuing a global sports journalism degree at George Washington University, Zach has been able to tap into his multilingual background and interview major footballing figures in Spanish and Portuguese as well as operate the weekly podcast 'Zach Lowy's European Football Show' on BET Central.
