Charlie Austin

By Craig · Published 31 October 2026

Reading let him go for being too small. He left school at 16 to lay bricks. Less than ten years later he scored 18 Premier League goals for a Queens Park Rangers side that finished bottom, and earned an England call-up. Charlie Austin is the non-league dream with the Premier League numbers to back it up.

Clubs

Poole Town, Swindon Town, Burnley, QPR, Southampton, West Brom, Brisbane Roar, and non-league either side

Premier League

111 appearances, 34 goals

Honours

Premier League Player of the Month, December 2014

International

England squad, May 2015 (uncapped)

Fantasy price

£9.5m in 2014/15

How he arrived

Austin grew up in Hungerford and played for Kintbury Rangers and Hungerford Town without a contract, working on building sites in between. At Poole Town in the Wessex League he scored more than a goal a game. Eddie Howe wanted him at Bournemouth, but a transfer embargo got in the way.

Swindon offered a trial instead, and he scored a hat-trick in his first match, against Swansea's reserves. They gave him a nine-month contract. If it hadn't worked, he has said, he would have gone back to bricklaying.

It worked. Howe signed him for Burnley in January 2011, calling him his first signing for the club. Then, in the summer of 2013, a move to Hull fell through after he failed a medical. He admitted later that he "didn't really want to play football" after that. Queens Park Rangers stepped in on 1 August 2013, and two years later he was the fourth-highest scorer in the Premier League.

The moment: West Brom, Loftus Road, 20 December 2014

QPR were 2-0 down after 20 minutes, with Joleon Lescott and Silvestre Varela on the scoresheet. Austin pulled one back from the penalty spot after Leroy Fer was fouled. Three minutes into the second half, Richard Dunne's header came back off the bar and Austin equalised. With three minutes left, he scored again to complete his hat-trick and win it 3-2.

He was named the Premier League's Player of the Month for December. By May he had 18 league goals, and only three players in the league had more. QPR still finished bottom.

The moment: Manchester United, Old Trafford, 23 January 2016

A week after joining Southampton, Austin came off the bench for Sadio Mané at Old Trafford. In the 87th minute he won a free kick, James Ward-Prowse whipped it in, and Austin headed the winner, unmarked. United were booed off. It's hard to imagine a better first day at a new club.

Why the streets won't forget

Because almost nobody gets to the Premier League this way any more. Reading let him go as a boy, and he spent his late teens laying bricks and playing non-league football for nothing. When Swindon offered him a nine-month deal, the building site was his fallback if it didn't work. A few years later he was in an England squad.

The 18 goals mean more because of where they came from. Scoring for a side chasing Europe is one thing. Scoring 18 for a side that finished bottom means living off scraps, and Austin made something out of almost every one. He was the one part of that QPR team that worked.

He never got his cap. Roy Hodgson called him up in May 2015 for a friendly against the Republic of Ireland and a qualifier against Slovenia, and he didn't get on in either. Then came Southampton and that header at Old Trafford, a debut most strikers would swap whole seasons for.

Where is he now

Back home. After Southampton came West Brom, a second spell at QPR and, in June 2022, a move to Brisbane Roar, where he scored four in 11 before leaving that December for family reasons. He went back to Swindon, then dropped into non-league with AFC Totton in July 2024 and, briefly, Basingstoke.

In November 2025 he signed for Hungerford Town, his home-town club and one of the sides he turned out for as a teenager without a contract. The bricklayer has come full circle, and he was still playing for them in 2026.

Which seasons can you draft him in?

Five. His 2020/21 season at West Brom doesn't make the game's squads.

Want the bricklayer up front in your retro fantasy football team? Pick him in2014/15 for £9.5m.