Gavin Peacock

Gavin Peacock

Personal information
Full name	Gavin Keith Peacock
Date of birth	18 November 1967 (1967-11-18)
Place of birth	Eltham, England
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position	Midfielder, Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1984–1987	Queens Park Rangers	17	(1)
1987	→ Gillingham (loan)	6	(0)
1987–1989	Gillingham	64	(11)
1989–1990	Bournemouth	56	(8)
1990–1993	Newcastle United	105	(35)
1993–1996	Chelsea	103	(17)
1996	→ Queens Park Rangers (loan)	5	(2)
1996–2002	Queens Park Rangers	186	(34)
2001	→ Charlton Athletic (loan)	5	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Gavin Keith Peacock (born 18 November 1967 in Eltham, London) is a former English professional football player who played primarily in midfield but often as a striker. He then worked in the media as a pundit, and in September 2008 relocated to Canada to study Theology with a view to becoming a Christian minister.

Biography

Early life

The son of footballer Keith Peacock, Peacock attended Bexley Grammar School as a child. He played schoolboy international football for England.

Football career

Peacock started his career at Queens Park Rangers, making 17 appearances in the First Division and scoring once before he moved to Third Division Gillingham in 1987 in a move which was started by his father, Keith, Gillingham's manager. Shortly after joining, his father was sacked by the club but Gavin remained on as a player until after their relegation to the Fourth Division in 1989.

He was signed by Harry Redknapp for Bournemouth in a £250,000 deal on 16 August 1989, but was unable to prevent their relegation from the Third Division that season. He began the 1990-91 season still at Bournemouth, but on 30 November 1990 he made the move back to the Second Division when Jim Smith paid Bournemouth £275,000 to take Peacock to Newcastle United.

The Magpies were in the Second Division at the time and were founder members of the new Division One on the creation of the new FA Premier League in 1992, and in the 1992-93 season he helped them win the Division One title. His goalscoring record for the Magpies was impressive, as their top scorer in 1991-92 with 16 goals and one of their best scorers in the promotion season with 12 goals.

He was sold to Chelsea for £1.5million soon afterwards, being one of new player-manager Glenn Hoddle's first signings for the Stamford Bridge side.

Peacock famously scored both home and away for Chelsea in 1–0 victories over Manchester United in the 1993–94 season. Both sides met again in the FA Cup Final, and with the score at 0–0 just before half time, Peacock hit the crossbar from 25 yards and missed a golden opportunity to gain silverware. Manchester United went on to win the final 4-0 and achieve the double. Peacock finished joint top scorer that season with an impressive 14 goals from midfield. He helped them reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1995 and the FA Cup semi finals in 1996.

Peacock returned to Queens Park Rangers in 1996, having lost his place in the Chelsea team to new signing Roberto Di Matteo.

He made a brief return to the Premier League in 2001 after going on loan to Charlton Athletic in 2001, where his father was now assistant manager. Peacock returned to QPR for the 2001/2 season, at the end of which he retired, having made 196 appearances in total for the club. By this stage, however, they were in Division Two. In total he scored more than 100 goals in over 540 league appearances.

After football

After retiring, Peacock worked with the BBC, regularly appearing as a pundit on Football Focus, Score, Match of the Day 2, BBC Radio 5 Live's comedy game show Fighting Talk and the BBC Radio 4 comedy show "One". He also hosted a weekly podcast on the official Chelsea website.

Influenced by the positive change he saw in his mother when she became a Christian, and already a believer in God, he started attending the local Methodist church at the age of 18. From then on, his Christian faith became central to his life. He presented a feature on Football Focus about faith in the game in December 2006. He also presented Songs of Praise on 10 February 2008, at the same time as his coverage of the African Cup of Nations final. Having studied theology from September 2006 at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, after completing his commentary duties at Euro 2008, he moved to Canada for a three-year masters course in Divinity at Ambrose Seminary. Peacock's aim is to become a pastor, vicar or minister depending on which Christian denomination he chooses to work within.

Personal life

Married to Amanda, the couple have two children: son, Jake (b 1993), and daughter, Ava (b 1996). They had a house in Bexley, Kent before Peacock started his studies, and a small holiday home in Canada in the Rocky Mountains.

External links

• Gavin Peacock talks about his Christian faith to Philip Halcrow of The War Cry