Peter Crouch Gets Emotional, Says He Didn?t Want To Retire

Former England, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur forward Peter Crouch has announced his retirement from football at the age of 38.

The gangly striker made his English Premier League debut in 2000 with Queens Park Rangers and went onto play for nine clubs. He ended his splendid career at Burnley as he signed a six-month contract with them in January, following an eight-year spell at Stoke City.?

Peter Crouch scored 108 goals in over 450 appearances in the Premier League, best known for his record for the most number of headed goals in the history of the competition.?

The former England international was capped 42 times by his national side, for whom he scored 22 goals. He led the Lions? attack into two World Cups, in 2006 and 2010.

Peter Crouch also has an FA Cup trophy with Liverpool to his name, along with reaching the Champions League final with the Reds in 2007.?

In a Twitter statement, Peter Crouch said: ?After a lot of deliberation this summer I have decided to retire from football. Our wonderful game has given me everything. I?m so thankful to everyone who helped me get there and to help me stay there for so long.

?If you told me at 17 I?d play in World Cups, get to a Champions League final, win the FA Cup and get 100 Premier League goals I would have avoided you at all costs. It?s been an absolute dream come true.?

Crouch will be remembered for producing some of the most memorable goals in Premier League history, which includes his bicycle kick against Bolton and an outrageous volley against Manchester City. He brought back his famous “robot dance” celebration when he scored his 100th Premier League goal in his time at Stoke.

However, the striker, in a brutally honest Daily Mail column, stated that age was not a factor when he considered retirement.?

?To go from being a regular starter to someone whose role is limited to 10 or 15 minutes off the bench has been hard to accept,? he wrote. ?I will be 39 in January but I am physically fit and could have carried on. What I didn’t want to be was someone who was thrown on to have balls smashed up to them.?

The forward also added that he would now like to focus on his family, which includes his wife and four children. Crouch released his book ?How To Be A Footballer? last year and has also worked in the media in the past. It won?t be surprising if a big sports platform hires him as a pundit following his retirement announcement.?