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Peter Crouch has been candid about the “devastating” boos he received when he made his England debut in 2005, and how “a few beers” with his dad got him through the toughest time of his career.
The former Liverpool and England striker admitted that throughout his career he often felt he was the butt of the joke, and believed fans were ‘ridiculing’ him.
Speaking of Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcastCrouch revealed that his appearance of over six feet tall often required him to be “superhuman” when playing for his country.
“It’s devastating,” he told Bartlett of the boos he heard at Old Trafford on his debut 17 years ago. “There may be an element of me being a Liverpool player at Old Trafford, of course there are a lot of Man United fans, but it was during the period when I didn’t score for Liverpool and I was struggling anyway.
“I felt like I had to be superhuman with England. It goes back to because I looked a little different, I wasn’t seen as what an England striker should look like, and I think that was really something.”
But it wasn’t just the primary impact of hearing boos while on international duty that hurt Crouch, but the effect it had on those around him, especially his relatives.
Peter Crouch admitted he felt devastated after being booed on his England debut
Crouch made his debut for the Three Lions against Colombia at Old Trafford in May 2005
“My mom was devastated, the proudest moment of my life was kind of taken away from it,” he added. “I’m not going to sit here crying, but it’s mostly disappointing for my family.
“(There’s a) bit of embarrassment because you want to be the one who comes down with the champagne in your hands and everyone claps for you and your family gives you a big hug.”
He went 18 games without a Liverpool goal
“I came to the players’ lounge afterwards feeling a little sheepish and a little bit like ‘sorry mom’. It’s like apologizing for what you’ve worked so hard for all your life.
“You put yourself in a position to get shot at, but your mother didn’t. She doesn’t need to hear that, and it kind of killed her.”
After making his Three Lions debut against Colombia at Old Trafford in May 2005, the 41-year-old signed for Liverpool who had just won the Champions League in one of the most memorable finals in the competition’s history.
However, Crouch failed to score for the Reds until December – a period the former striker admitted was incredibly difficult for him, leaving him feeling ‘depressed’.
He admitted that he wanted to “hide” from his goalless run to escape “mockery” from football fans, and forced himself not to read, watch or listen to any negativity in the media.
“That Liverpool phase was like radio silence – I was gone,” he explained.
“I was ridiculed, that time I didn’t score for Liverpool was such a difficult time for me. I just wanted to hide in a dark room until I got a base score, so I don’t know what I’d do if I were hiding in a dark room with a cell phone.”
He would make 42 appearances for England, scoring 22 goals in the process
And when asked by Bartlett what an outsider would have seen, he replied, “Someone is depressed.” Not on the outside, I’ve never been the person to wallow in it, I’ve always been a bubbly character, I always see the positive in everything, but at the time I thought I was being made fun of and it was really hard.”
However, he admitted that the Anfield supporters continued to support him despite his desperate form on the pitch. that I will never forget.
“I swear to you, any club in the world, I just won the Champions League in one of the best finals we’ve ever seen in Istanbul in 2005, they sign me and I show up and I haven’t scored in 18 games. ” . I don’t think there is a top club in the world that tolerates that – apart from Liverpool fans – and they stuck with me.
Crouch only scored in December 2005 after joining the Merseyside club in the summer
“It was like a siege mentality where someone attacks him, but he is one of us and we are with him. It felt like they wanted me to score every time, and when I finally did, you can see the footage of it – the camera shakes and it was like we’d won the European Cup final, people wanted me to score so many times.’
His first Premier League goal for the club – which he joined from relegated Southampton for £7million – came against Wigan, when he scored a brace on 3 December 2005, ending an unfruitful 18-match run .
That was his longest lean spell in what would later become an 18-year professional career, and he left Liverpool in 2008 with 42 goals and 23 assists in 145 appearances over three seasons.
The 41-year-old eventually left Liverpool after 145 games, 42 goals and 23 assists for the Reds
But it wasn’t just the support of Liverpool fans that helped the goalkeeper get through that spell, as he admitted going out with his dad was something he “needed at the time”.
He admitted he ‘probably’ drank more than a Premier League player ‘should have’
“Yeah my dad to be honest with him I’d say ‘No I’m not going out’ but he’d say ‘No you’re going out’ – he forced me to go out after games even though I wanted to not, like people were laughing at me, but he dragged me out and we’d have a few beers.
“It wasn’t like I was drinking alone at home, like some dark kind of thing. He dragged me out, and he forced me to have a few drinks and then I actually realized because I’ve built it up like “everyone is laughing at me,” nobody cares.
“They may laugh at you on a Saturday, but they go back to their own lives. I feel like everyone always smiles at me, you build these things up in your head and they’re never as bad as you think they are.
So his way of dealing with it was to invite me over for a beer.