Peter Crouch’s football career in pictures (and that legendary robot dance)
Crouch enjoyed a stellar career. From Tottenham Hotspurs, via QPR, Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Southampton, Liverpool, Stoke City and Burnley to the best football podcast of all time.
Former England striker Peter Crouch has announced his retirement from football at the age of 38.
Here’s a look at his colourful career in pictures.
Having started his career at Tottenham, Peter Crouch made his senior Football League debut for QPR (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA)After one year at Loftus Road, Crouch joined Portsmouth, scoring 18 league goals in the 2001/02 season (PA)
He had an unhappy time when he first stepped up to the Premier League with Aston Villa, though, and was sent on loan to Norwich (PA)
But a season at Southampton got his career back on track (Chris Ison/PA)
Crouch made a slow start at Liverpool but won the FA Cup in 2006 (Nick Potts/PA)
Crouch scored the first of his 22 England goals in a friendly win over Uruguay in March 2006 (Martin Rickett/PA)
He marked his next international goal, in a pre-2006 World Cup friendly against Hungary, with the robot celebration for which he would become famous (Gareth Copley/PA)
He brought out the celebration once more four days later as he hit a hat-trick against Jamaica but then said he would only perform it again if England won the World Cup (Owen Humphreys/PA)
He scored his one and only major tournament goal in a group-stage win over Trinidad and Tobago at the 2006 World Cup (Nick Potts/PA)
Crouch won over the Anfield faithful with goals like this spectacular bicycle kick in a Champions League match with Galatasaray (Martin Rickett/PA)
He scored his first club hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Arsenal in March 2007 (Peter Byrne/PA)
After three seasons at Liverpool, Crouch returned to former club Portsmouth (Chris Ison/PA)
Once again he was only on the south cost for a season before moving back to where it all started, Tottenham (Nick Potts/PA)
Crouch found Stoke to his liking, making more than 200 Premier League appearances for the club (Adam Davy/PA)
And he even revived the robot to celebrate his 100th Premier League goal, against Everton in February 2017 (David Davies/PA)
He finished his career back in the Premier League with Burnley (Martin Rickett/PA)
In the summer of 2006, Crouch adopted his trademark robotic dancing goal celebration – a parody of a dance he had been seen performing on a television programme covering a party held at England teammate David Beckham’s house, performing it after his goal for England against Hungary on 30 May.
On 6 August 2007, Crouch said he would never use the robot dance again unless he scored in the UEFA Champions League Final, but he partially reprised it on 1 April 2009 after scoring during England’s World Cup qualifier against Ukraine after a Comic Relief sketch.
On 1 February 2017, Crouch gave the dance a final outing to celebrate his 100th Premier League goal for The Potters:
