After more than 21 years as a professional, former England striker Peter Crouch has called it quits at the age of 38. Burnley's contract with the former Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Liverpool, and Stoke striker expired in June. Crouch played for 11 different clubs and received 42 England caps. He is the second oldest player to debut for England after George Farmer who was 40 years and 344 days old when he debuted in 1876.
Peter Crouch began his career at Wimbledon where he made one appearance in the Football League before being released at the end of the season. He then had trials with Tottenham and Arsenal but neither club wanted him so he returned to Wimbledon where he scored 14 goals in 44 appearances before moving to Portsmouth for £750,000 in August 1999. With Portsmouth, he won the FA Cup in 2004 and earned promotion to the Premier League that same year. In May 2005, he moved to Aston Villa for £8 million where he spent three seasons. In July 2008, he joined Liverpool for £10 million where he stayed for five seasons. In March 2013, he signed with Stoke City for an undisclosed fee. After nine seasons with Stoke, he retired at the end of 2018/19 season.
He has been named in England's squad for this summer's UEFA European Championship in France but will not play due to retirement. He finished his international career with two goals in 41 appearances.
Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981) is a former English professional football striker. Between 2005 and 2010, he was capped 42 times by the England national team, scoring 22 goals and competing in two World Cups. Crouch is one of only 28 players in history who have scored 100 goals...
He started his career at Tottenham Hotspur before moving to Aston Villa in 2003. In 2005 he moved to Portsmouth where he remained until 2007 when he joined Stoke City for £13 million. He has since had spells with Blackpool and QPR before returning to Stoke in 2016.
Crouch has been awarded the Golden Boot award on three occasions - in 2006, 2008 and 2009. He also holds the record for the fastest goal from a free-kick, which he achieved against Germany in August 2008. The ball was taken by Frank Lampard and it took Crouch just 14 seconds to score his first international goal.
England manager Roy Hodgson called him up again in March 2015 after almost four years out of the side. Then manager Sam Allardyce said that if Crouch was available then he would play him. So far, he has played in five matches under Hodgson and has scored twice.
In May 2015, Crouch announced that this would be his last season with Portsmouth because he wanted to finish his career as a Stoke player.
"If you told me at 17 I'd play in World Cups, go to a Champions League final, win the FA Cup, and score 100 Premier League goals, I would have avoided you at all costs," Crouch said on Twitter. "But only because you were trying way too hard!"
He added: "I've had an amazing career so far and am still going strong."
His current club is Stoke City, who are playing in the English Premier League. The first game of the season was between Stoke and Liverpool and Crouch scored twice in a 4-1 victory for Stoke.
He became the ninth player to be given the nickname "Peter" as part of his shirt number when he started against Liverpool. Peter Shilton is the most recent player to don this number.
Stoke are one of the few remaining teams who use the number 9 shirt for their players. The other teams are Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, and Bristol City.
So far this season, Crouch has scored 14 goals in all competitions. He reached 100 Premier League goals faster than any other player except Wayne Rooney (183 games).
When he reached this goal early in the 2017-18 season, Crouch announced that he was retiring from professional football due to a persistent knee problem.
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