Peter Crouch talks Real Football 2008

If you've played the excellent Real Football 2008, you'll know that Peter Crouch is one of the game's cover stars, alongside Robinho and Fabio Cannavaro.

Yesterday, publisher Gameloft held a press event to publicise the game, with Crouch himself in attendance, along with a troop of football hacks and, naturally, Pocket Gamer.

It's tempting to think that footballers just take the money and run when it comes to this kind of endorsement deal, but Crouch has at least played the game he's promoting.

"I'm not the best to be honest," he says. "I have played it, but I'm pretty woeful on it! But I'm in good company on the front, and it's good to have it on the mobile phone, so you can take it wherever you are."

Crouch says he jumped at the chance to be involved in Real Football 2008, given the players who'd been its stars before.

"The main thing is the graphics and how realistic it is, with each player having their own skill and certain abilities," he says. Sadly, that realism hasn't extended to including Crouch's famous robot dance, although that's not because he ruled it out.

"I wouldn't have minded, you can throw the robot in! I was playing it with Craig Bellamy the other day though, and he was arguing with the refs and everything. So it's very realistic."

That's not to say the Liverpool team aren't hardcore gamers in their own way. Crouch says Jermaine Pennant, Harry Kewell and Steve Finnan are the most ninja-fingered players when it comes to consoles.

"They're the main boys, but we're playing Mario Kart at the moment," he says. "The odd bit of money changes hands, and I'm top man at that at the moment. How about Pac-Man? I've not played it for a while, but many years ago I wasn't bad."

Apparently he's currently got a Nokia phone (we have no idea which model, but neither does he seemingly). Of course, with the press launch stuffed with actual football journalists, there were plenty of non-mobile gaming questions, too.

In short: he won't be drawn on whether Jose Mourinho should be England manager; he thinks Liverpool will beat Marseilles to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League; if money was no object he'd like Liverpool to buy Lionel Messi or Kaka; and he thinks Steve McClaren is an umbrella-waving, tactically naive, tosh-spouting fool who couldn't manage a paper bag.

Oh, alright, he didn't say that last one. But we bet he's thinking it.