Jimmy Carter (footballer)
James William Charles Carter (born 9 November 1965) is an English former footballer. Playing as a winger, Carter featured for Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Millwall, Liverpool, Arsenal, Oxford United and Portsmouth throughout his career. Following his retirement from football, Carter has been heavily involved in the world of property investment. Since 2015 Carter has been a member of the commercial sales team at Millwall. Early life. Carter was born on 9 November 1965, of mixed ancestry. His British surname came from a 17th-century ancestor who moved to India and married an Indian woman. His father  Maurice originated from Kanpur in India, and was brought up in Lucknow. After being orphaned at 14, Maurice joined the merchant navy, came to England, and married Jimmy's English mother. When they divorced, Maurice brought up Jimmy and his brother 'as Indian kids'. Maurice (who died in January 2009) encouraged Jimmy to make it as a footballer, waking him early on frosty mornings to train. Career. Carter began his professional career aged 14 at Crystal Palace, who released him when 19, and then had a brief spell with Queens Park Rangers, but failed to make a league appearance for  either club. Millwall bought Carter from QPR in 1987 for £15,000 and gave him his Football League debut in a 0–0 draw with Oldham at The Den in the Second Division. He quickly established himself in the Millwall first team and was an integral part of the team which gained Millwall promotion to the top flight in 1987–88, the first time ever in Millwall's 100-year history. In December of that season, Sheffield United defender, Chris Wilder was sent off for a crude tackle on Carter. Carter was part of a side that included players such as Teddy  Sheringham, Tony Cascarino and Terry Hurlock. Millwall made a strong start to the 1988–89 season where went top of the league at the beginning of October and remained in the top four most of the season, before a failure to win any of their final 10 league games saw them slip to tenth, their lowest position all season. They were relegated in bottom place the following season, but Carter initially stayed with Millwall. Carter left Millwall on 10 January 1991, when Kenny Dalglish signed him for Liverpool for a fee of £800,000. Dalglish resigned shortly after, with Ronnie Moran  taking temporary charge of the team for two months until Graeme Souness took over in April. Carter would play eight first team games for Liverpool, and after just nine months at Anfield he was sold in a £500,000 deal to Arsenal, the club he supported as a young boy, on 8 October 1991. He spent nearly four years at Highbury, but was never a regular first team player. Anders Limpar, Eddie McGoldrick and Glenn Helder were Arsenal's regular players in Carter's preferred position during his time at Arsenal. During his time there, Arsenal won the FA Cup  and the League Cup in 1993 and in 1994 went on to win the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, but Carter played no part in those finals, nor in the less important European Super Cup or FA Charity Shield matches. By contrast, he played the entirety of the club's surprise cup defeat to Wrexham in January 1992. In the following season Carter was loaned out to Oxford United. In all the winger made 29 appearances for the Gunners, scoring two goals. In the summer of 1995, with Graham having left the club for disciplinary reasons in February and new manager  Bruce Rioch rebuilding the team, Carter signed for Portsmouth, where he spent three years. In 1998, Carter re-signed for Millwall, but did not have the same impact as his first spell there, with the club now languishing in Division Two. He was forced to retire from football at the end of the 1998–99 season as a result of a serious back injury. Carter made 149 appearances for Millwall, scoring 13 goals in all for the Lions. Carter has appeared for Arsenal in the Masters Cup Football competition for veteran players shown live on Sky Sports. He also plays for  the Arsenal Charity Team, a team of ex Arsenal players and celebrities. Personal life. He was the first British Asian to play in the Premier League, although this was not known at the time as Carter did not publicly disclose his background and his name did not make it obvious.