Peter Crouch has revealed that his father had an altercation with a journalist at the 2006 World Cup over what was being written about the former striker at the time.
That tournament will forever be remembered by England fans as the one where then-Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo arguably helped get club teammate Wayne Rooney sent off in the quarter-final clash between England and Portugal.
The Portuguese went on to knock out the Three Lions on penalties following a goalless draw in what ended up at the time being yet another disappointing tournament.
However, with the relationship between England and the press incredibly toxic and a shadow of its current state, former England international Crouch recalled that for some reason the journalists covering England had been put in the same hotel as the families of the players involved.
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Staying in Baden-Baden, a spa town located near the Black Forest in south-western Germany, the two sets of people clashed with the ex-Liverpool, Tottenham, Southampton, Portsmouth and Stoke striker recalling an incident involving his Dad.
"He [Crouch's father] was not happy about some of the descriptive language that was used about me," Crouch told the Athletic's Tifo Football Podcast. "It was never 'Peter Crouch', it was always 'lanky hitman,' 'beanpole striker,' you know, 'lanky target man.' Always a descriptive word that went before my name.
"So my Dad just had enough of it one day and you've got to remember we're in Baden-Baden obviously and somehow, the players' families got put in the same hotel as the press, right? This is where the carnage ensued.
"You've got to remember, the journalists at that time were quite nasty about the players. So the players' families, obviously, it was a lot of [clashes] in that hotel. I mean, if you had been a fly on the wall in that hotel, it's a documentary for the ages, that one.
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"One day my Dad just pulled one of the journalists that was consistently saying negative things about me in the press. He said, 'How would you like it if I said that fat c*** before your name every time?' And he said, 'I wouldn't particularly like it' and he said, 'Well stop saying it about my son then.'"
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Crouch then added that the journalist in question hadn't been particularly conscious of the impact of what he was writing on some people, saying: "He actually never really thought about what he was writing and that people's families were reading it. I think also in that hotel in Baden-Baden like actually a lot of the families got across their point to a lot of the journalists that were being so negative about the footballers and I think that humanised it if you know what I mean.
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"What you're writing is about human beings and because quite often I think it's something where football is seen as a great job, you're incredibly highly paid for it, it's like we can say what we like because of that.
"I think as the player, you know what you're getting into right? It's just the families. It's my Mum, it's whoever's Mum it is. They take it harder.
Featured Image Credit: The AthleticTopics: England, Peter Crouch, Football
