Lee Crooks

Manchester City

Crooks was a product of the youth system at Manchester City. He also played for the England national football team at school level. As a club trainee, Crooks signed his first professional contract on 1 August 1994 (aged 16 years, 6 months, 18 days). By September 1996 he was being included in the first team squad for games by caretaker manager Asa Hartford as one of three promising youngsters. City were relegated to Division 1 at the end of the 1995–96 season, and two years later, again, falling to Division 2, their lowest ever level. Through two successive promotions however, via the play-offs from Division 2 and then by automatic promotion from Division 1, the club had returned to the Premier League in the minimum time just 2 years later, in time for the start of the 2000–01 season. Crooks was in the Manchester City team that won that 1999 Division 2 play off final at Wembley Stadium against Gillingham in dramatic fashion, albeit substituted on 85 minutes for Gareth Taylor. Having come back from a 2–0 deficit with 2 minutes remaining, City scored twice to take the game into extra time, and then after no further scores, winning the subsequent penalty shootout. On 26 December 2000 he went out on loan to Northampton Town. He made 3 appearances before returning on 23 January 2001. On 7 March 2001 Crooks was sold by City to Barnsley for £190,000. Crooks scored two goals for Manchester City, both in the league. It was three years before he scored his first…

Icelander Gudjon Thordarson, his manager at Barnsley and Notts County, referred to Crooks as 'The Beast' due to his combativeness. Crooks said before his Notts County debut, "If there is a tackle to be won, I am in there. I do like a good tackle". While not a prolific scorer, his first professional goal in 1999 was described by The Guardian as a "tremendous shot which thundered in off the post." Similarly, his FA Cup goal for Bradford City in 2005 was described by the BBC as powerful shot which cannoned off the bar and in. In February 2009, Crooks was described by The Times as a "versatile defender and midfielder who ... had his most productive season in helping Manchester City win promotion in 1999".

After quitting football, Crooks chose a new career path in the British Armed Forces. Choosing not to follow his younger brother into the British Army, Crooks instead signed up as an enlisted member (gunner) of the RAF Regiment, the infantry unit of the Royal Air Force, whose role is to provide force protection of RAF airfields and bases. In February 2011 at 33 years old, he completed his seven months of RAF Regiment basic training, passing out as a leading aircraftman. Initially posted to No. 1 Squadron RAF Regiment based at RAF Honington in Suffolk, in the following weeks he underwent intensive training in the Sennybridge Training Area in Wales, and was due to visit the RAF Mount Pleasant base in the Falkland Islands followed by a deployment to the frontline in the War in Afghanistan, in early 2012. Crooks left the RAF after five-years of service.

Crooks was born on 14 January 1978 in the city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England.