Gavin Keith Peacock (born 18 November 1967) is an English former professional footballer and sports television pundit. As a player he was

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and striker from 1984 until 2002, notably playing in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

for Newcastle United and

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. He also played in the Football League for

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

, Gillingham, AFC Bournemouth and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

. He then worked in the media as a pundit, notably for

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

, before in September 2008 he relocated to Canada to study

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

with a view to becoming a Christian minister.

Early life

Peacock comes from a footballing family; his father

Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

played for Charlton. Though Peacock followed

as a child, he maintained a soft spot for Newcastle United. His father's side of the family are from North East England, they followed Newcastle United and Peacock in his youth owned Newcastle replica shirts; he also regularly visited South Shields on the Peacock family holidays. Peacock lived in Crayford in the

London Borough of Bexley The London Borough of Bexley () is a London borough in south-east London, forming part of Outer London. It has a population of 248,287. The main settlements are Sidcup, Erith, Bexleyheath, Crayford, Welling and Old Bexley. The London Boro ...

, and attended Bexley Grammar School in nearby

Welling Welling is an area of South East London, England, in the London Borough of Bexley, west of Bexleyheath, southeast of Woolwich and of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the historical county of Kent. E ...

as a child. He played schoolboy international football for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Playing career

Peacock started his career at

, making 17 appearances in the First Division and scoring once before he moved to Third Division Gillingham in October 1987 in a move which was started by his father,

, Gillingham's manager. Peacock joined on loan initially, but signed permanently for £40,000 in December 1987. 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 named as the Kent side's Young Player of the Year award in his first season and then in the relegation season of 1988-89 his displays saw him recognised by the supporters who voted him as Player of the Year. He was signed by Harry Redknapp for AFC Bournemouth in a £250,000 deal on 16 August 1989, but was unable to prevent their relegation to 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. Peacock himself was not the first in the family to be on the books of Newcastle, his father's cousin was at Newcastle United in the 1950s, though he did not make a first team debut. Peacock stated that his family lineage and connection to the North East was a big draw in him signing for Newcastle United when the opportunity came up with an offer from Jim Smith, the then manager of Newcastle. The ''Magpies'' were in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

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. He was Newcastle United's 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

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 The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...

, 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 14 goals from midfield. He helped them reach the semi-finals of the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

in 1995 and the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

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 Roberto Di Matteo (; born 29 May 1970) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career as a midfielder, he played for Swiss clubs Schaffhausen, Zürich and Aarau before joining Lazio of Italy and Chels ...

. He made a brief return to the Premier League in 2001 after going on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

in 2001, where his father was now assistant manager. Peacock returned to QPR for the 2001–02 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.

Media career

After retiring, Peacock worked with the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Early life

Playing career

Media career

Personal life

Honours

Selected publications

References