carroll was raised in lucan, dublin and started playing football with junior club, home farm in 1998 and he later moved to belvedere, where he won the fai under-17 cup at tolka park. while at belvedere he played in a side that included fellow future league of ireland players neil harney, stephen traynor, david lodola, craig sexton, paul corry, gary burke, david o'connor, tom o'halloran, garvan broughnall, sean skelly and future pats' teammate chris forrester.