Peter Crouch '˜invented Come Dine With Me' while playing for PortsmouthÂ

The goal machine, who played 37 times for Pompey between 2001 and 2002, made the claim on his new BBC podcast. 

That Peter Crouch podcast debuted this week '“ and features the striker alongside Tom Fordyce and Chris Stark. 

And the former Pompey striker made the bold claim that he came up with the idea for the popular Channel 4 cookery show Come Dine With Me. 

On the podcast Crouch said: '˜I invented Come Dine With Me. I had great mates - Shaun Derry, Courtney Pitt '“ when I first went to Portsmouth. 

'˜We lived in each others pockets. We used to cook for each other. We had a like Come Dine With Me kind of vibe. 

'˜We were all single at the time, we were eating out and we were professional footballers so we were like 'right lets nip this in the bud'. 

'˜So we used to make little trips to Tesco. We used to go all together.

'˜We'd have our basket or one of the lads would be pushing the trolley.

'˜We'd get various items and whoever was cooking would say what they wanted and then we'd rate each other. 

'˜This is before Come Dine With Me by the way. I invented Come Dine With me and I've had no royalties for it and I've not been asked on the show.' 

On the podcast Crouch said that his speciality dish was chicken pasta. 

He explained: '˜I used to get the bows throw them in, cut the little bits of chicken myself and I might throw some onions in and some stir in sauce. 

'˜I never won. Shaun Derry was good. He was a little bit older than us.

'˜He had more culinary skills than us. It's not Gordon Ramsey stuff but it used to be edible.' 

Come Dine With Me first launched on ITV in 2005, three years after Crouch's season at Pompey.