Peter Crouch has long retired from playing professional football, but anyone who genuinely saw him playing – especially for their own team – will tell you that he's greatly missed.
Arguably one of the most underrated players of modern times, his worth to each club he played for, including Liverpool, Spurs and Stoke City, is in no doubt to genuine fans. And yet, simply because of his height and body shape, some would have you believe that he was just a target man or supersub.
As a Liverpool fan myself, I can attest that he was so much more than that. His skill on the ball was far greater than many remember, while his perfect hat trick against Arsenal in 2007 was worthy of the likes of Ronaldinho and Messi.
And then there was that bicycle kick against Galatasaray... wow!
"I am basically shite and I'm not happy about it."
Peter Crouch
That's why I personally found it odd to find his Hero card in FIFA 23 to be rather underwhelming – unusable, almost. And the one in EA Sports FC 24 is arguably worse.
But no matter how disappointed I have been, it turns out Crouch himself was more so: "I have a big bone to pick with them [EA], so have a lot of my followers," he told me during a recent interview.
"They keep tagging me saying 'this is a huge disrespect to your ability'. I am basically shite and I’m not happy about it."
That hasn't stopped the ex-England forward from playing as himself in each game though: "I’m slightly disappointed with my rating, but, I seem to score goals when I play as him, as everything goes through me."
He'd definitely up his stats though, given the chance: "I don’t think I was actually that bad, so I would make me slightly better," Crouch explained.
"I don’t think I’m as slow as the game makes out. Pace wasn’t my forte, but I think you could add slightly more pace, and ability to be quite honest.
"I think it’s a bit of disrespect to my name, to be honest."
Maybe next year EA, if you're listening?
Peter Crouch was talking to T3 as part of a partnership he and his wife Abbey Clancy have signed with shopping and payment app, Klarna. You can read the full interview here.
