If you’re a Premier League footballer, the only thing you care about in choosing a car is looks and status, right? Not in the case of Peter Crouch. When you’re 6ft 7in, the decision is dictated by practicality: can you fit into it? “I can squeeze into some of the bigger sports cars and I drove a battered old hatchback in the past when my career wasn’t going as well,” the Liverpool and England striker says. “But these days I want to be able to stretch out when I get behind the wheel.”

Crouch is the tallest man to play for England but has a deftness of touch and agility that catches opponents unawares. His skills will be put to the test on Tuesday when Liverpool face Internazionale in the second leg of their Champions League campaign. The team must defend its 2-0 advantage to go through to the quarter finals of the competition, which is realistically the only chance they have of winning any silverware this year.

It won’t be the first time Crouch has stared defeat in the face. After playing youth football with Tottenham Hotspur he failed to make the step up to the first team and ended up plying his trade as a 19-year-old first at Dulwich and then with IFK Hassleholm in Sweden.

It may have been a modest club but at least it gave him a car. “I went with another lad who’s now at [Leyton] Orient. The club gave us a Renault Mégane but because the town we lived in was so quiet we’d drive all over to places like Malmo and Gothenburg in search of a bit of fun.”

Over the ensuing five years Crouch gradually progressed up the divisions, playing at QPR (where he was relegated), Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Norwich and Southampton (where he was relegated again) before his big move to Liverpool.

“It’s been a long, roundabout trip but I’m finally where I want to be now,” he says. “Players like Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney came straight through but I’ve had to battle to get where I am. I had to persevere but I always had confidence in my ability.”

Crouch is not from typical working-class football stock. His father, Bruce, a Chelsea season-ticket holder, has enjoyed a successful career in advertising, having worked on high-profile advertisements for Boddingtons and Murphy’s at Bartle Bogle Hegarty before founding an independent agency. “My dad started at the bottom of his business and we moved around a fair bit when I was younger,” Crouch explains slightly defensively. “He did exceptionally well and is well respected but it wasn’t always easy.”

Though born in Macclesfield, Crouch spent his early years in Singapore, where his father worked for three years. “My mum swears my first words were in Mandarin but I can’t remember,” he says. “I’ve seen the pictures and it looks lovely.

“I’m desperate to travel and go to places like Australia when I finish [my footballing career]. It’s no good going for three weeks in the summer - you don’t have time to see anything. People think footballers do lots of travelling but while you play at all these amazing places you’re lucky if you get outside the hotel for a walk.”

Crouch has won over many of his critics, especially those who claimed his game was too slow for international football. Then there’s that dance. Inspired, apparently, by moves he had seen at a party thrown by David Beckham, the robot routine made him a favourite on the terraces. “I got asked about half an hour ago by a fan in the street,” he says with a laugh. “But I’ve said I won’t do it again until we win the World Cup. You can have too much of a good thing.”

His choice of transport has matched his career progress. When he was scraping around at QPR in his teens he drove a green Volkswagen Polo. “I pimped it out with some nice wheels and I was more than happy with it, though the lads used to give me some stick. The colour was horrible, it’s true.”

More recently he has moved on to a BMW X5 and an even larger Hyundai Santa Fe, a seven-seater SUV. “I could have driven half the team to matches in that - it was huge,” he says. “And the sat nav was wicked.”

Crouch loves his sat navs, not least because of the arguments they save with his girlfriend - the model, television presenter and sometime Wag Abigail Clancy. “There’s no map-reading so there’s no arguments. I wouldn’t be without it,” he says.

Crouch counts himself a safe driver. “I’ve never had a ding. Some of that’s down to luck but I class myself as a decent driver. When I was 17 I took an advanced driver’s test because it brought down the insurance. If you tell them you’re a young footballer it goes through the roof. In fact it costs more than the car.”

Today he drives a Range Rover Sport, a step up from the Hyundai, for sure, but not quite as flash as some of his teammates’ motors: he says Ryan Babel, another striker, drives a Brabus-tuned Mercedes, which in true footballer style has his name stitched into the headrests.

Off the pitch Crouch likes to unwind with a few gadgets. He admits there’s a club craze for Mario Kart on the Nintendo DS, which keeps everyone entertained on away trips, and also confesses to watching more football on TV than he should, especially now he has been hired by BT to promote its BT Vision TV-on-demand service “If I’ve had a good game I’ll even watch ours. If not I’ll probably skip it. I’ve worked hard to get where I am now and I’m thankful to have reached this level, but if I hadn’t I’d still be playing, because I love football.”

My stuff...

In my parking space A Range Rover Sport

On my CD player I like the Kooks, left, and have been fortunate to meet them after their gigs on a couple of occasions. I’m looking forward to the new album, Konk

On my DVD player American Gangster was definitely the best movie I’ve seen for ages

I wouldn’t be without My FA Cup winner’s medal

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