Peter Crouch BiographyPeter Crouch
English international football player, known as "Crouchy" to fans.
His height, 2.01 m / 6 ft 7 in, makes him the tallest man ever to play for either Liverpool or the England national team. He is also known for his robotic dancing goal celebration, performed after scoring for England in the pre World Cup friendly matches in the spring of 2006. In the wake of his robotic dancing, The Guardian newspaper described Crouch as "building a reputation as a cult hero".
Date of birth January 30, 1981
Place of birth Macclesfield, England
Height 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Playing position: Striker
Youth clubs
Tottenham Hotspur
Senior clubs
Club App (Gls)
Tottenham Hotspur 0 0)
FK Hässleholm (loan) 8 (3)
Queens Park Rangers 42 (10)
Portsmouth 37 (18)
Aston Villa 37 (6)
Norwich City (loan) 15 0(4)
Southampton 27 (12)
Liverpool 63 (17)
National team
England U21 6 (1)
England 17 (11)
Career honours
Winner
2003–04 Football League First Division - Norwich City
2005–06 FA Cup - Liverpool
2006–07 FA Community Shield - Liverpool
Runner-up
2005 FIFA Club World Championship - Liverpool
Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 9 May 2007.
National team caps and goals correct as of 9 May 2007.
Early life
Although born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, Crouch's family soon moved south to London. When Crouch was four, the family moved again, to Singapore, although they stayed there for a year before returning to London. A keen footballer from an early age, he became a ballboy at the age of ten.
After attending Drayton Manor High School in Hanwell, Crouch signed a pro contract with Tottenham on July 2, 1998, after having played for their youth side. He did not make any appearances for their first team and was loaned out to other clubs, having brief spells in Dulwich Hamlet in the Isthmian League and, in the summer 2000, IFK Hässleholm in Sweden.
QPR & Portsmouth
On July 28, 2000 Tottenham sold Crouch to Queens Park Rangers (QPR) 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.
Relegation meant that QPR had to sell many of their best players to support their finances, and Portsmouth bought Crouch from them for £1.25 million. Crouch scored 18 league goals in only 37 starts for Portsmouth, benefiting from the crossing of Robert Prosinecki, and in a side that for much of the season looked destined to be in a relegation battle.
Aston Villa
In March 2002, Premier League side Aston Villa made a successful £5 million bid. He scored on his home debut for Villa, the equalising goal against Newcastle Utd, and managed to net twice in seven games. Crouch failed to hold a regular place in the Villa side in the following 2002–03 season.
Looking for first team football, he was loaned to Norwich from September to December 2003. Although he scored only four times in 15 appearances, he was highly impressive and remains to this day popular with Norwich City supporters. So popular, in fact, he had a song made up about him. 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 Villa, and scored a brace against Leicester City, a late winner at Middlesbrough and the opener at Bolton. Norwich recognised his contribution to the 2003–04 season that saw them win the Championship by awarding him a championship medal. He was presented with a medal on the pitch prior to City's match against his new club Southampton at Carrow Road in November 2004. When he came on as sub for Southampton later that afternoon, he received a very good reception from the home crowd.
Villa sold Crouch in July 2004 to Southampton for a fee of £2 million. Crouch signed a four year deal with Southampton. He scored just six goals in 37 Premiership games for Aston Villa.
Southampton
He made his Southampton debut in a 2 – 0 defeat at his previous club, Villa, and later scored a controversial winning penalty against another former club, Portsmouth, on January 29, 2005 in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Despite scoring 16 goals in 33 appearances during the 2004–05 season, his future was cast into doubt when Southampton were relegated from the English Premiership. On July 19, 2005, Southampton agreed to sell Crouch for £7 million to Liverpool, on a four year contract.
Liverpool
Crouch underwent intense media scrutiny due to a goal drought during his first months at Liverpool. For 19 games, spanning 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 Crouch possessed "good touch for a big man" in fact 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 given as an own goal, it was later awarded to Crouch on appeal, he went on to score a second goal in the same game. Prior to these goals, Crouch 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 height.
He went on to score several more goals that season, including a only goal in the fifth round of the FA Cup (2005–06) against Man United, Liverpool's first victory over them in the FA Cup post World War II. On 13 May he helped Liverpool to win the 2006 FA Cup final against West Ham, providing a crucial assist for Steven Gerrard to score the second Liverpool goal.
Three months later, in the curtain raiser to the 2006–07 season, he headed the winning goal for Liverpool in the club's 2 – 1 victory over Chelsea in the FA Community Shield. However, during the course of the season, he has been left frustrated often sitting on the bench even though he is Liverpool's top scorer. In their 2006/07 UEFA Champions League campaign he scored his first goals in European club competition. On January 13, 2007 he scored two goals in an away game against Watford, the first time he had scored twice in an away league game for Liverpool. Crouch sustained a broken nose when playing against Sheffield Utd in February 2007. Although he played subsequent games, on March 9, 2007 it was announced that he would undergo surgery on the injury which would keep him out of football for a month. On 31st March 2007 he returned to action after the operation and scored the first hat-trick of his club career, against Arsenal in a 4 - 1 Liverpool victory. This was also a so called "Perfect Hat-Trick", consisting of goals scored from his right foot, left foot and head.
International career
Youth international
Crouch was capped for the England Under 20 team at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship, with team mates including Stuart Taylor, Ashley Cole, Andrew Johnson and Matthew Etherington. However, the team finished bottom in the group stage, with three losses and no goals. He was later a part of David Platt's England Under 21 team, which went to the European Under 21 Championships in Switzerland in May 2002, where he scored once.
Breakthrough into senior team
In May 2005, he was handed his first call up to the senior England squad by manager Sven-Göran Eriksson for the team's tour of the US, making a debut against Colombia. He went on to make two appearances during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign for England, starting against Austria in a 1 – 0 victory and coming on as a substitute against Poland in a 2–1 win. In the latter appearance, Crouch's introduction as a second half substitute was booed by England's own supporters.
On 1 March 2006 he scored his first goal for England, the equaliser in a 2–1 friendly win over Uruguay. He did this whilst bizarrely wearing two different squad numbers on his shirt, 21 on the front, and the incorrect 12 on the back.
In May 2006, Crouch was included in the 23 man England squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and was expected to be a significant figure in the team due to Wayne Rooney's foot injury. On the 30th May 2006 he played in a pre World Cup friendly against Hungary, scoring the third goal in England's 3 – 1 win. He followed his goal with an unusual robotic dancing-style goal celebration. On 3 June he again played for England in a pre World Cup friendly against Jamaica, scoring a hat-trick. Between his second and third goals he took a penalty kick hoping to gain a hat-trick, but he put the ball over the bar. England went on to win 6 – 0, Crouch securing his hat-trick in the 89th minute with a fine finish, his fifth goal in three England games.
World Cup 2006
After his displays in England's friendlies, Crouch partnered Michael Owen in attack for England's opening 2006 FIFA World Cup game against Paraguay on June 10, 2006. England won the game 1 - 0 and Crouch kept his place in the starting line up for the following match against Trinidad and Tobago, against whom he scored his first competitive international goal. The goal provoked controversy as replays showed Crouch to be pulling on Brent Sancho's long hair, holding the defender down, to gain advantage.
Crouch was rested for England's third group game against Sweden as Rooney returned from injury to join the starting line up. Michael Owen suffered an injury in the opening minute of the game and Crouch replaced him, playing the remainder of the match.
In England's 1 - 0 second round victory against Ecuador, Crouch remained an unused sub as Eriksson switched the team to a new formation with Wayne Rooney as lone striker. After Rooney's dismissal for a foul in England's quarter final against Portugal, Crouch came on as a sub for Joe Cole. He could not turn the game in England's favour though, and the team lost 3-1 on penalties after a 0-0 draw.
Euro 2008 qualifying
Crouch remained a part of the England set up under Eriksson's successor as manager, Steve McClaren, and started McClaren's first game in charge, a friendly against Greece in August 2006. He scored twice in England's 4 - 0 victory. Two further goals followed in England's next match, a 5 - 0 win over Andorra in their opening qualifying match for the 2008 European Championships on September 2, 2006. These goals made Crouch a first player ever to reach ten goals for England in a single calendar year.
He added a further goal to his tally with the winner in England's 1 – 0 qualifying victory away to Macedonia on September 6. An operation needed for a nose injury he sustained playing for Liverpool prevented him from playing in England's two qualifying matches in March 2007.
Trivia
Nicknames
"The Crouch" dance
Robotic dancing
In the summer of 2006, Crouch briefly became celebrated in the English media for his unusual robotic dancing goal celebration. A parody of a dance he had been seen performing on a tv programme covering a party held at England team mate David Beckham's house, he first performed it after his goal for England against Hungary on May 30. Two days after the match, Crouch repeated the dance at the request of Prince William during an England training session attended by the Prince. He again performed the dance, at the prompting of his team mates, after both of his first two goals against Jamaica on June 3. The dance was briefly a celebrated pop culture event, garnering much media coverage.
On Monday 12 June, Crouch announced he would only perform his robotic dance again if England were to win the World Cup, saying "It's not about robotic dancing. It is about scoring goals and winning matches. It's an important time for everyone now". In September 2006, he was quoted in The Observer newspaper as saying that: "It was funny at the time, but I didn't want to carry on doing it until it became unfunny. I've stopped doing it for the time being, but if I ever score a really big goal you never know."
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