Peter Crouch

Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.

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.

Crouch signed a professional contract with Tottenham Hotspur on 2 July 1998, after having played for their youth team.

After QPR were relegated at the end of the 2000–01 season, Portsmouth acquired him in a transfer deal worth £1.5 million.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.