Born 1979. Clarke attended Balshaw’s Church of England High School where he attained 10 A-grades at GCSE and studied mathematics and politics at A-level and has a degree in professional sports writing and broadcasting at Staffordshire University.

Carlisle represented his home county of Lancashire at youth level. The start of his professional career was his Football League debut for Blackpool in September 1997. He moved to Queens Park Rangers in May 2000. In the same year, Clarke won three caps for the England under-21 national team. In the summer of 2004, he joined Leeds United.

In the 2005–06 season, his first with Watford, the team finished third in the division and achieved promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs. In August 2007, Burnley bought Clarke from Watford for a transfer fee of £200,000. In the 2008–09 season he played over 40 matches as Burnley reached the semi-finals of the League Cup and finished fifth in the league, earning a place in the play-offs. Clarke was named man of the match for his performance in the play-off final as Burnley beat Sheffield United 1–0 to return to the top tier of English football for the first time in 33 years.

Clarke has been an ambassador for the Kick It Out campaign and is a former Chairman of the Management Committee of the Professional Footballers’ Association. In October 2009, Carlisle made his first appearance on the BBC television football programme Match of the Day 2. He has since appeared as a pundit for Sky Sports and ITV Sport during numerous televised football matches. Carlisle has made two appearances on the BBC panel debate show Question Time, becoming the first footballer to appear on the programme.

Carlisle also appeared as a contestant on the Channel 4 game show Countdown on 24 February 2010, winning his first match against the defending champion to stay on the show for the following programme. Carlisle then won his second contest, achieving a larger score than the previous day to stay on for another match. In his third match on 26 February 2010, he was defeated by three points.

On 23 May 2013, Carlisle announced his retirement from playing.

(Ref: Wikipedia)