Andy Carroll has spent a career getting on the wrong side of opposition defenders – but he can also count one pizza restaurant owner among his list of enemies. That’s after the former Newcastle striker rubbed Calvin Kitchin up the wrong way when he allegedly parked in his private car park in September 2020.
Kitchin – who owned Cal’s Own Pizza in Jesmond, Newcastle – was stunned to find Carroll’s lime-green Mercedes-AMG GT R taking up two spaces around the back of his establishment. The nine-cap former England international may be a sizeable figure at 6’4″, but the egregious grab of real estate was considered a step too far.
Rather than simply let the swindling slide, Kitchin stuck an expletive-laden note to Carroll’s windshield letting him know exactly what he thought of the situation. He claimed the frontman – now with Amiens in Ligue 2 – was “on a different planet to the working class,” though it didn’t end there.
“Listen you rich f*****g c***, you have a nice car I’ll give you that,” read the disgruntled message. “Otherwise, I pay £42,000-a-year for my lease.
“If you were to come into my restaurant and ask if you could use my parking to park nicely, me or my staff would probably say yes. Hence why you can’t just be nice and take what you want.”
Carroll uploaded a photo of the note to his own Instagram after returning to his car. Not that he appeared fazed by the situation, captioning it with a laughing emoji alongside the words: “Didn’t like your pizza anyway.”
The ex-Magpies marvel was in the midst of his second spell at St. James’ Park at the time of the disagreement. And despite the fact Kitchin insisted he didn’t know to whom the car belonged, Carroll is likely to have lost a fan following his response.
Kitchin later told ChronicleLive he had never seen the 35-year-old in his restaurant, which might have helped salve the situation. He added: “What would be civilised is to come [inside] and ask if he could park his massive car, especially when there is plenty of on-street parking.
“He took up two spaces – what if a disabled customer came? There is a parking meter down the road which barely costs anything anyway.”
The Liverpool Echo reported former Reds manager Rafa Benitez was a regular at Cal’s Own during his time on Merseyside.
Having left Reading to join Amiens on a free transfer in 2023, Carroll is more likely to run afoul of a fromagerie than he is a pizza connoisseur these days. His first season in France produced just four goals in 33 appearances, with one year left to run on his current deal.
Meanwhile, Cal’s Own Pizza has since closed down.
