Carter began his professional career with brief spells at Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers, but failed to make a league appearance for either club. Millwall bought Carter in 1987 for £15,000 from Queens Park Rangers 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. 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 leagueat 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 just 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
Carter is of mixed ancestry, with his father originating from Lucknow in India. 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.
