PETER CROUCH has revealed he was laughed at by fans when he first started playing because of how he looked.
The 6ft 7in England and Premier League legend went on to have a successful career at club and international level.
However, he was abused by supporters when making his senior debut as a 19-year-old.
Signed by QPR for £60,000 in 2000, Crouch was largely unknown when he lined up as a tall and skinny teenager.
He has now recalled the reception he had from the crowd in his new Amazon Prime Video documentary That Peter Crouch Film.
Crouch explained: “Getting in the first team was one thing.
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“Experiencing the level of abuse was something that was new to me and another eye-opener. It was my first season in professional football and we went away to West Brom.
“I came on and I could hear the crowd laughing at me, I could feel it, purely because of the way I looked like, none of them had ever seen me play.”
The former striker was later abused by home supporters during a trip to face Gillingham.
He added: “There was another time away at Gillingham where I got absolutely abused, I think everyone in the crowd was singing songs about me.
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“‘Freak’, ‘does the circus know you’re here?’, it was like I was a joke.”
Crouch went on to score 12 goals in 47 appearances for QPR to earn a £2million move to Portsmouth a year later.
Across his career, he would score 106 goals in 467 Premier League appearances, featuring for the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham.
The popular 42-year-old also won 42 England caps, scoring 22 times for his country and playing at two World Cups.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
