Peter Crouch says his son being mad on soccer is the reason he is now desperate to become manager of his lad’s under-sevens side
Peter Crouch is gagging to become a kids’ football manager. The 6ft 7in tall ex-England striker, 44, says he is now getting his footie fix by watching his son Jack’s Saturday league side kickabouts.
But the competitive beanpole – who has banked millions from his punditry and podcast – has admitted he wants to take control of the squad as coach.
He said: “My little boy Jack, who’s six, he seems to love football, he’s obsessed with it. He’s just joined his team now. I would have loved to have been the manager. The only problem is they play on a Saturday morning and quite often I’m doing TNT Sports News.
“I’m at the games. I get down when I can, but there’s no way I can manage the team.
“Who knows in the future what will happen, I would love to be the manager of his football team.”
Former Liverpool striker Crouchie, who has three other kids – Sophia, 14, Liberty, 10, and Johnny, seven, with his model wife Abbey Clancy – added he does his best not to be a shouty dad on the sidelines.
But due to his Premier League past he admits it’s hard not to get involved in front of the other parents.
Crouchie, currently starring in a new Paddy Power Casino advert with Danny Dyer, Gemma Collins and Coleen Rooney, added: “I try to stay out of it as much as I can, the dads who are doing are doing a great job.
“They really are doing a great job – I try and stay as far away from it as possible. “But it is so hard on the sideline when you can see – they’re only six and seven – but you can see them making little errors and it’s so hard not to jump in and help out.
“I find myself being involved, I can’t help it.”
Although Pete and Abbey’s son Jack may be football mad, their other son Johnny has no interest in the sport – leaving his dad stumped.
Crouchie said about his brood’s athletic interests: “They’re all sporty. My eldest girl plays tennis – she was a swimmer. The swimming is hard.
“I like them to have a focus on things, especially sport wise – it keeps them young.
“My girl is 14 she’s really into the tennis – she plays every day.
“The seven-year-old boy unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of interest in football, which was hard for me at first, but he’s his own person which is great. They’re all different characters.”