Telegraph Sports Book Awards
Peter Crouch’s is
among a strong field of nominees for Autobiography of the Year at The Telegraph Sports Book Awards, which will be staged at Lord’s next June. The longlist also includes Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas’s
Moeen Ali’s
London 2012 dressage champion Charlotte Dujardin’s
and Rio 2016 gold medallist Sam Quek’s pigeon chest out in front of anyone,” he says. “I don’t think the world needs it. I’d probably get a yellow card anyway.”
It is how comfortable he is in his own skin that has been key to his appeal, especially on Twitter, as a likeable, empathetic figure.
He also happens to be an excellent footballer.
He scored 22 goals in 42 England caps, 108 goals in the Premier League, and he loves the game. So much that now it is coming to an end, he says it makes him feel scared.
“I am more enthusiastic now than I ever have been – in a weird way.”
Crouch is also one of the last still playing from the generation who did the traditional apprenticeship, cleaning David Howells’ boots and surviving on £47 weekly wages. It was before the advent of sports scientists, nutritionists and data analysts and when the QPR team of the era would still go boozing on the Uxbridge Road.
“I can tell the young lads stories of when it wasn’t quite as professional,” he says. “I feel proud I was part of the old school and still around in the new school.”
He would like to have played more this season at Stoke and is adamant he still has much to offer. He has done his A-licence coaching badge at the Welsh Football Association and is ready for management if that happens.
He is a lot more single-minded than he might appear when it comes to his career although, crucially, he has never allowed football to change the way he thinks about himself.
That said, he has changed the way that football thinks about him.