Robbie Slater

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Robert Slater (born November 22, 1964 in Lancashire, England) is a former Australian football player. He is more commonly known as Robbie Slater. He has 44 caps for the Australian national team, including in the 1997 World Cup qualifier against Iran. His final appearance for Australia was against Saudi Arabia in the 1997 Confederations Cup. He is a member of the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame.

Slater, a midfielder, moved to Australia as a youngster and started his playing career in Australia, with various clubs in his youth before joining St George Saints in the National Soccer League in 1982. He won the NSL with St George in 1983, and following this season he trialled with Nottingham Forest; however St George and Nottingham Forest were unable to agree terms and he returned to Australia. He then moved to Sydney Croatia in 1987 before an aborted move to Hajduk Split was quickly followed by a transfer to Anderlecht.

He did not see much playing time in Belgium and moved to then Ligue 2 club Lens, which was promoted during his time at the club (1990-94). While he was at Lens he was attacked with a baseball bat by Paris Saint-Germain supporters and nearly lost his life. On a happier note he also met his future wife Natalie there.

At the end of the 1993-94 season Robbie moved to Blackburn Rovers, and there he became the first Australian to win the English Premier League in the 1994-95 season. He was sold to West Ham United at the end of the season and also moved to Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers during his time in England.

At the end of the 1997-98 season he moved back to Australia to captain a new team in the National Soccer League, Northern Spirit. He would play with them until his retirement at the end of the 2000-01 season.

[edit] Club history

[edit] Non-playing career

Robbie wrote an autobiographical book in the late nineties called 'The Hard Way' on his playing career. Robbie is now an analyst and commentator for Australian Pay-TV channel Fox Sports commenting in particular on the English Premier League, the Australian A-League and appearing on Total Football with Simon Hill and Andy Harper.


[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Wynton Rufer		 Oceania Player of the Year
1991		 Succeeded by:
Wynton Rufer
Preceded by:
Wynton Rufer		 Oceania Player of the Year
1993		 Succeeded by:
Aurelio Vidmar
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