Football's Newest Model Man

Andy Carroll may have achieved a transfer fee to rival any amount paid for David Beckham (£35 million to bring him from Newcastle to Liverpool), but he hasn't troubled Beckham's modelling achievements - until now. The West Ham and England striker recently signed with Select Models and his first job was the small matter of the Alexander Wang for H&M campaign. No big deal.

"I obviously had heard of Alexander Wang but until I'm walked on set I didn't realise how big this campaign was," Carroll told us. "I was being told that everyone who was working on the campaign was fashion royalty; the world's top stylists, hairdressers and photographers were all there! All the other models were top supermodels who were really friendly and made me welcome. It was all a bit surreal to be honest. The set and location were unbelievable; I've done photo shoots for West Ham and England before but nothing like this, there were so many different people running around with cameras and TV screens everywhere, it was seriously impressive."

Andy Carroll

Reportedly pitted against more than 200 other candidates for the spot, Carroll admits he was "definitely not expecting to get it" but is enjoying the new string to his bow, which he kept to himself until the image was unveiled.

"I thought I would wait for the images to come out first, it would be a bit more of a surprise to everyone that way," he said. "I haven't really asked my family and friends directly what they think. I think they think the picture is pretty cool though, it's a bit different for them and me, to see me pictured out of my football kit."

Whether he's asked his family or not, you might imagine his teammates would have been more forthcoming with their critique? But Carroll is unfazed.

"Modelling has never been something I have considered, I guess my focus has always been on my football," he said. "There is plenty of banter that goes on in the dressing room every day, but there are worse things to get stick about than being a model!"

Carroll met the man himself on set and, rather than educating him on the ways of "soccer", chatted with the Balenciaga creative director on matters close to both their hearts.

"I had a good chat with Alexander, turns out we both have a keen interest in trainers and he had noticed the ones I was wearing before I did my shoot," Carroll told us. "I guess you could say we discussed fashion!"

"Ha ha, are you serious?" he laughed. "I don't think I'm quite ready to take on Becks yet. I will leave that to him for the time being, I'm going to concentrate on the day job of scoring goals for West Ham and hopefully England. We will have to wait and see what everyone else thinks of the campaign first; others will judge that. Football is my main priority and always will be, but you never know what could happen when I retire, which is hopefully a long way off. You never know what opportunities there might be, I'm pretty relaxed about the situation, but it's certainly an avenue that I would consider."