Crouch walks tall at Stoke

Peter Crouch’s biography is entitled ‘Walking Tall’ which typifies the Stoke City striker’s career so far.

Although Crouch would love to get an England recall after being dropped from the squad, he erred when he told Roy Hodgson: “I am willing to make myself available for international duty, only if I am definitely going to be in the team”.

Crouch has never been a regular for his country but said he had become fed up of travelling around the world only to end up on the bench.

Hodgson has opted against involving Crouch in the World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine, even though the England manager had a lack of top-quality strikers after injuries to Wayne Rooney and Andy Carroll.

Crouch was born on January 30, 1981 in Macclesfield, Cheshire. He is 6ft 7in (2.01m) tall.

He started his career in the youth side of Tottenham where he signed a professional contract with Spurs in July 1998. He had short loan spells with Dulwich Hamlet (Isthmian League) and in the summer of 2000 he joined IFK Hasseleholm in Sweden.

Later that year, Tottenham sold Crouch to QPR for £60,000. In his first season, 2000-01, he impressed and scored 10 league goals. Yet that season QPR were relegated and Graham Rix, manager of Portsmouth, captured him for £1.5 million.

During his time at Fratton Park, Crouch’s goalscoring prowess was in evidence as he banged in 18 league goals in 2001-02. He finally made his much-craved debut in the Premier League when Aston Villa signed him in March 2002 for £5 million.

In 2002-03, Crouch failed to make an impact on the side and his urge to play regularly set Villa to loan him out to Norwich City.

His spell at Carrow Road was fruitful as the fans took him to heart and he was in the shop window once again. For the first time in his career, he saw red in Norwich’s 3-1 win at Watford.

After returning to Villa Park, Norwich still wanted him and he joined the Canaries in their run to the Championship in 2003-04.

Yet, he was still to change places and Aston Villa accepted Sout-hampton’s offer to sign Crouch for £2 million in July 2004 on a four-year deal.

When Harry Redknapp arrived at Southampton, Crouch became a fixture in the side. He scored crucial goals for the Saints but the team’s relegation put a big question mark over his head.

His next stop was Liverpool. In July 2005, he signed for a fee of £7m.

Crouch seemed to hit a bad-luck streak at Anfield, failing to find the net in 19 games. He was happy to end his drought on December 3 against Wigan. The fans were unhappy with his dearth of goals but applauded his efforts, particularly the goal that downed Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Crouch chalked up his maiden goal in Europe in 2006-07 for Liverpool in the Champions League and played in the final against Milan when replacing Javier Mascherano.

Crouch was on the move again when he opted to return to Portsmouth who paid £11 million for his signature. He was glad to team up with Redknapp once more in 2008-09.

His spell lasted one season as Tottenham signed him once more for £10 million. He netted his first goal for Spurs in the League Cup tie against Doncaster, a 5-1 victory.

On the last day of August 2011, Stoke announced the signing of Crouch for a club record fee of £10m. He scored his first goal for the Potters in a 1-1 home draw against Manchester United.

That netting for Stoke meant Crouch had scored for a sixth Premier League club in his career.

In January last year, he struck both goals against Blackburn to notch up his 100th league goal .