- published: 23 Jul 2013
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Jan Koller (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjan ˈkolɛr]) (born 30 March 1973) is a former Czech footballer.
As an international player he played as a striker for the Czech Republic national team. He is the all-time leading goal scorer for either the Czech Republic or the former Czechoslovakia, with 55 goals in 91 caps. Standing 202 cm or 6'7.5" tall and weighing around 107 kg or 235 pounds, Koller has an impressive physical presence and is a constant aerial threat to the opposition.
Koller started his football training as a goalkeeper, but was converted to striker by the time he started his professional career with Czech giants Sparta Prague. In 1996, Koller caught the eye of Belgian football and signed with the club Lokeren.
After a successful three-year stint, in which he managed to finish as Belgian First Division top-scorer in his last season at Lokeren, Koller was signed by Belgian giants Anderlecht. He quickly built up a successful partnership with Canadian striker Tomasz Radzinski, excelling in his debut season and earning him the Belgian Golden Shoe in 2000. At the end of the season, he was bought by German side Borussia Dortmund.
Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Stoke City and the England national team.
Crouch started his career as a trainee with Tottenham Hotspur. However he failed to make a first team appearance for the club, leaving it in 2000 and playing for several teams including four Premier League clubs – Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Southampton and Liverpool – before returning and finally making his senior Tottenham debut in 2009. He was the second top-scorer in the 2006–07 Champions League season, behind AC Milan's Kaká.
Crouch was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, but his family moved to Singapore when he was one year old, where they stayed for three years before returning to Great Britain and settling in Ealing, London. A keen footballer from an early age, he became a ball boy at the age of ten. As a child, he attended some Chelsea games. Later, he told the Liverpool official website that despite this, he and his friends at the time were fans of Queens Park Rangers.