Ex-England striker Peter Crouch retires from football at the age of 38

Former England striker Peter Crouch has ended his playing career aged 38.

Crouch started his youth career at Brentford before switching to Queens Park Rangers’ youth system and Tottenham Hotspur’s youth setup.

He began his playing career at Spurs, but recorded no appearances for the team and was loaned out to Dulwich Hamlet and IFK Hassleholm.

The striker then returned to QPR in 2000 for a brief stint with the now 38-year-old moving to clubs all over England which included the likes of: Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Norwich, Southampton, Liverpool, Stoke City and finally Burnley. Within his career he also recorded 42 England caps.

Crouch admitted the prospect of retirement was “scary” and writing in the Daily Mail added:

“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.

“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.”

In total, Crouch played over 750 games for club and country and recorded 227 goals for his clubs and nation.

The six foot seven striker also won silverware with Norwich as they were Football League First Division champions in the 2003-04 season he also added to his trophy cabinet the FA Cup in the  2005–06 season and the FA Community Shield in 2006, both trophies he had won with Liverpool.