Unlike some of his teammates at the World Cup in 2006 – John Terry, mainly – it is objectively hard to dislike Peter Crouch. With the natural build of the Slenderman and the demeanour of an especially large and awkward teenage boy, Crouch is the gangly everyman of English football and a striker who continues to surprise with his ability to control a ball with his feet.

Despite having the look of the scrawny kid who was forever being picked last in the playground, he has outlasted the majority of the players who accompanied him to Germany for Sven-Göran Eriksson’s last tournament as England manager.

Not much younger than former ‘little and large’ strike partner Michael Owen – who retired five years ago – Crouch is still trundling about and scoring at roughly the same rate as he did at his professional peak.

View photos England’s Peter Crouch celebrates scoring against Trinidad and Tobago in 2006 More

His goals-to-game ratio has generally been mediocre, of course, but Crouch has other ways of making himself useful. Behind the veil of comedy value, he has hidden guile, wiliness and something equating to decent technique.

He may have been written off as a gormless lanky lad, a spindle-limbed target to pump the ball to at corners, but Crouch’s career highlights are more extensive than merely doing ‘The Robot’ and (allegedly) extorting nachos from cinema workers. Take his most iconic goal, for instance, a header which made him a public enemy on a dual-island nation in the southern Caribbean.

40 years of hurt

The 2006 World Cup was a tournament of great significance for England. Not only was it held in Germany, the home of the Three Lions’ greatest nemeses, it marked a full 40 years since England’s one and only triumph in the competition.

Having reached the quarter-finals of consecutive major tournaments in the form of World Cup 2002 and Euro 2004, England fans and the national press were still capable of earnestly hyping the team’s chances.

Eriksson’s time as manager was coming to an end – this after he had been caught in a sting by ‘Fake Sheikh’ Mazher Mahmood in which he admitted he could leave the England job for Aston Villa on account of a fictitious big-money takeover – but he could still call upon the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney. Plus, well, Crouch.

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The tournament didn’t get off to the best of starts, England labouring to a 1-0 win against Paraguay in their opening game. Only an own goal from Carlos Gamarra separated the two sides at the final whistle, with England widely criticised for an unconvincing display.

Rooney was unavailable for the first two group matches owing to a foot injury, so Eriksson opted for a lopsided front two of Crouch and Owen. The initial signs were less than promising, but he nonetheless persisted with the asymmetrical strike partnership for the following game.

Meeting with minnows

Next up, England faced the ultimate underdogs in Trinidad & Tobago. The Caribbean nation with a population of just over 1,000,000 – the majority of whom were more interested in cricket than football – had qualified for the World Cup after edging through an inter-confederation play-off against Bahrain.

In footballese, the term ‘minnows’ may as well have been coined for the Trinidad & Tobago national team as they headed to Germany.

View photos Crouch climbs above Trinidad & Tobago’s Brent Sancho to open the scoring and spare England’s blushes in 2006. (PA) More

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