Peter Crouch

Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was capped 42 times by the England national team between 2005 and 2010, scoring 22 goals for his country during that time, appearing at two FIFA World Cups. He is one of 33 players to have scored 100 or more Premier League goals, and jointly holds the record for the most headed goals in Premier League history. A tall forward, with a slender physique, Crouch was known for his aerial abilities, technical abilities and hold-up play.

Crouch began his career as a trainee with Tottenham Hotspur. He failed to make an appearance for Spurs and after loan spells at Dulwich Hamlet and Swedish club IFK Hässleholm he joined Queens Park Rangers. After QPR were relegated at the end of the 2000–01 season, Portsmouth acquired him in a transfer deal worth £1.5 million. He had a strong first season at Fratton Park, and after scoring 19 goals for the club, he joined Aston Villa in March 2002 for £5 million. He had a relatively poor spell at Villa, however, and was loaned out to Norwich City in 2003 before making a move to Southampton, where he regained his form, which would ultimately prompt his joining Liverpool in July 2005. At Liverpool he enjoyed considerable success, winning the FA Cup and FA Community Shield in 2006, and also gaining a runners-up medal in the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final.

After scoring 42 goals in three seasons at Anfield, Portsmouth re-acquired Crouch for £11 million, where he forged an effective partnership with fellow England international Jermain Defoe. He spent just one season in his second spell at Portsmouth and left for Tottenham Hotspur, where he again linked up with Defoe and Harry Redknapp. He scored a vital goal for Tottenham against Manchester City which earned the club a place in the UEFA Champions League. He scored seven goals in ten European matches for Spurs in 2010–11, but was unable to replicate this form in the Premier League. He joined Stoke City in August 2011, for a club record fee of £10 million. In his first season with Stoke, he scored 14 goals and won the club's Player of the Year award. He scored eight in 2012–13 and ten in both the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons. Crouch spent seven and a half years with Stoke, scoring 62 goals before joining Burnley in January 2019. He retired in July 2019 after the end of his contract.

Early life

Crouch was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, but his family moved to Singapore when he was one year old. The move came about when his father Bruce, originally from Fulham, took up a job offer to work at a Singaporean advertising agency. The Crouch family spent three years living in Southeast Asia, and moved back to England after Bruce rejected the chance to work in Australia. They then spent time living at a YMCA in Tottenham before settling in Harrow on the Hill. Crouch attended Roxeth Primary and North Ealing Primary and began to play football with Northolt Hotspurs. He was then invited to join the Brentford Centre of Excellence in 1991 and he also played for the boys club West Middlesex Colts whilst attending Drayton Manor High School. Crouch turned down contract offers from Chelsea and Millwall and instead joined Queens Park Rangers in the summer of 1994. He did not stay at QPR for long, however, for in November 1994, the coaching staff at Loftus Road moved to Tottenham Hotspur, including its youth team manager Des Bulpin, who offered Crouch a contract at Spurs.

Crouch's family were Chelsea supporters, and he became a ball boy at Stamford Bridge at the age of ten. As a child, he attended some Chelsea matches. Later, he told the Liverpool official website that despite this, he and his friends at the time were fans of QPR.

Club career

Tottenham Hotspur

Crouch signed a professional contract with Tottenham Hotspur on 2 July 1998, after having played for their youth team. However, he did not make any appearances for their first team and was loaned out to other clubs, having brief spells at Dulwich Hamlet in the Isthmian League Premier Division and, in the summer of 2000, IFK Hässleholm in Sweden, where he played in the country's third tier. His move to Sweden came about when IFK Hässleholm sold Jon Jönsson to Tottenham for £70,000 and also agreed two loan deals for the Swedish club, that of Crouch and Alton Thelwell.

QPR and Portsmouth

On 28 July 2000, Tottenham sold Crouch to First Division club Queens Park Rangers for £60,000. He made an immediate impression with QPR, scoring ten league goals in the 2000–01 season, but it was not enough to prevent the team's relegation to the Second Division.

Relegation meant that QPR had to sell many of their best players to support their diminished finances, and Portsmouth bought Crouch for £1.5 million. Crouch scored 18 league goals in 37 starts for Portsmouth during the 2001–02 season and was tipped by manager Graham Rix to have a big future in the game.

Aston Villa

In March 2002, Premier League club Aston Villa made a successful £5 million bid for Crouch. He scored on his home debut for Villa, the equalising goal against Newcastle United, and went on to score twice in seven appearances. Crouch, however, failed to hold down a regular place in the Aston Villa team in the following 2002–03 season making 18 appearances without scoring. Looking for first team football, he was loaned to Norwich City from September to December 2003. Crouch played 15 times for the Canaries in 2003–04, scoring four goals helping the team gain promotion. Crouch was sent off for retaliation during Norwich's 3–1 win at Walsall, but nonetheless his spell at Norwich renewed interest in his abilities from other clubs.

At the end of the three-month loan, he returned to Aston Villa, and scored a brace against Leicester City, a late winner at Middlesbrough and the opener at Bolton Wanderers. Villa sold Crouch in July 2004 to Southampton for a fee of £2.5 million.

Southampton

Despite initially being back-up to first choice strikers James Beattie and Kevin Phillips, Crouch became the main attacking focus of the Southampton team upon the arrival of Harry Redknapp and the sale of Beattie. He scored many key goals in Southampton's relegation battle, including memorable goals against Liverpool in a 2–0 home win, Arsenal in a 1–1 home draw and two away to Middlesbrough in a 3–1 victory. He also scored a late winning penalty to knock former club and Saints' arch-rival Portsmouth out of the FA Cup. His form for the Saints eventually resulted in him receiving his first England call-up. After scoring 16 goals in 33 appearances during the 2004–05 season, his future was cast into doubt when Southampton were relegated from the Premier League. On 19 July 2005, Southampton agreed to sell Crouch for £7 million to Liverpool on a four-year contract.

Liverpool

Crouch underwent intense media scrutiny because of a goal drought during his first months at Liverpool. For 19 matches—the span of four months—he was unable to score. Crouch was praised for other facets of his game, such as his touch on the ball, but his first goal for the club evaded him. The fact that Crouch possessed "good touch for a big man" became something of a media cliché during this time. Early in his Liverpool career, the supporters composed a new chant: "He's big, he's red, his feet stick out the bed, Peter Crouch, Peter Crouch."

The drought finally ended on 3 December 2005 when he scored against Wigan Athletic. Although this first goal was originally given as an own goal, it was later awarded to Crouch on appeal; he went on to score a second goal in the same match. Before these goals, Crouch had played over 24 hours of football for Liverpool without scoring. In addition to this, he also had to deal with unpleasant taunts from crowds at matches, as he had throughout his footballing career, who often chanted " freak" at him due to his unusual height. He went on to score several goals that season, including the only goal in the fifth round of the FA Cup against Manchester United, Liverpool's first victory over them in the FA Cup post-Second World War. On 13 May, he helped Liverpool to win the 2006 FA Cup Final against West Ham United, providing an assist for Steven Gerrard

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