Paul Robinson | ||
Personal information | ||
---|---|---|
Full name | Paul William Robinson | |
Date of birth | 15 October 1979 | |
Place of birth | Beverley, Yorkshire, England | |
Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[1] | |
Playing position | Goalkeeper | |
Club information | ||
Current club | Blackburn Rovers | |
Number | 1 | |
Youth clubs | ||
-1997 | York City | |
Senior clubs1 | ||
Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
1997–2004 2004–2008 2008– |
Leeds United Tottenham Hotspur Blackburn Rovers |
137 (1) 11 (0) |
95 (0)
National team2 | ||
2003– | England | 41 (0) |
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
Paul William Robinson (born 15 October, 1979 in Beverley,[2] East Riding of Yorkshire) is an English football goalkeeper who plays for Blackburn Rovers. He is an experienced international goalkeeper.
He started his career in the York City youth system but joined Leeds United at 16, where he played 95 league games and also scored a goal in a League Cup tie. In 2004, following Leeds' relegation from the Premier League, he moved to Tottenham Hotspur. He played 137 games with Spurs, scoring another goal, before he was signed by Blackburn Rovers in 2008. He has also earned more than 40 caps for his country.
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Having come through the youth ranks at Leeds United, Robinson made his debut against Chelsea in 1998, keeping a clean sheet. In the 2003-04 season he scored his first professional goal against Swindon Town in the closing moments of a League Cup game, forcing extra time. The game went to penalties, two of which were saved by Robinson to help his team to victory.[3] However, he faced much worse times in the Premier league, conceding 77 goals in 36 games.[4] Despite this somewhat dubious record Tottenham Hotspur's Director of Football David Pleat was not dissuaded in his pursuit of Robinson.
Robinson transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in May, 2004, for a fee of £1,500,000.
On March 17, 2007, Robinson scored the second goal of his professional career, in a Premier League game against Watford at White Hart Lane. He took a free-kick from just outside of his own penalty area (85 metres, or 93 yards from the opposition goal) and the ball bounced over the head of Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster, and into goal.[5] He became the third goalkeeper in Premier League history (excluding own goals) to score after Peter Schmeichel for Aston Villa in 2001 and Brad Friedel for Blackburn Rovers in 2004, although of the three only Robinson's team went on to win the match. He was also the third goalscoring goalkeeper in the English league in the 2006-07 season, following goals from Gavin Ward for Tranmere Rovers and Mark Crossley for Sheffield Wednesday.
Robinson captained the team in their 1-0 Football League Cup quarter-final win over Southend United,[6] and in their 0-0 FA Cup third round draw at Cardiff City as Ledley King and Robbie Keane were both injured.[7]
Robinson collected the first major trophy of his career in Tottenham's 2-1 victory over Chelsea in the 2008 League Cup final.[8]
He joined Blackburn Rovers on 25 July 2008, for a fee of £3.5 million on a five-year deal, making him Paul Ince's first signing at the club.[9] On July 29th, it was confirmed during an interview that he would be wearing the Blackburn No.1 jersey left behind by the departure of Brad Friedel. On 30th July, he made his Blackburn Rovers debut in a 2-1 victory against Northwich Victoria. He is currently the first choice goalkeeper in the Blackburn squad.
Robinson has played 41 times for England. He was part of the Euro 2004 squad, as understudy to David James, making no appearances in the tournament. In the subsequent qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup he replaced James as England's first choice goalkeeper.
At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Robinson was named in England's World Cup squad for the finals in Germany and was an ever present in England's campaign, keeping clean sheets in four out of five games that he played. He conceded no goals to Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago during the group stage. After the opening World Cup game against Paraguay, when his counterpart Justo Villar was injured 7 minutes into the match, ending his tournament early, Robinson sent Villar his gloves as a gesture of good will after England won 1-0.[10] During the knockout rounds, he kept clean sheets against Ecuador in the round of 16 and Portugal in the quarter-finals, although the latter prevailed 3-1 in the penalty shoot-out to end England's campaign.
On 11 October, 2006, during a Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia, an unexpected bobble on a backpass from Gary Neville caused Robinson to miss the ball completely as he tried to clear it out of the penalty area, resulting in an own goal to put Croatia 2-0 up.[11] Robinson later described the incident as a freak.[12] On 22 August 2007, Robinson made a mistake to gift Germany their first goal in England's first loss at the new Wembley Stadium, with a final scoreline of 2-1. He was substituted at half-time by James.[13]
Robinson was not included in the squad for new England manager Fabio Capello's first game in charge, however he was included in his second squad for the match against France due to an injury to fellow ex-Leeds United goalkeeper Scott Carson.
Paul Robinson was born at the Beverley Westwood hospital and attended Beverley Grammar School in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Whilst playing for Leeds he moved to a mansion in the famous village of Stamford Bridge. He is married to Rebecca, his childhood sweetheart. The couple currently live in North-West London with their daughter Lucy May and son, Jack, born 14 January 2008.
On 4 September 2005, burglars raided his mansion while he was in Cardiff for the 2006 World Cup qualifier win over Wales. His wife and daughter were not at the house at the time of the raid.[14]
Tottenham Hotspur
Club | Season | League | Cup | Europe | Total | ||||
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Games | Goals | Games | Goals | Games | Goals | Games | Goals | ||
Blackburn Rovers | 08–09 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
Club Total | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | |
Tottenham | 07–08 | 25 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 37 | 0 |
06–07 | 38 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 54 | 1 | |
05–06 | 38 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 40 | 0 | ||
04–05 | 36 | 0 | 8 | 0 | – | 44 | 0 | ||
Club Total | 137 | 1 | 22 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 175 | 1 | |
Leeds United | 03–04 | 36 | 0 | 3 | 1 | – | 39 | 1 | |
02–03 | 38 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 50 | 0 | |
01–02 | – | – | – | – | |||||
00–01 | 16 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 24 | 0 | |
99–00 | – | – | – | – | |||||
98–99 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 6 | 0 | ||
Club Total | 95 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 119 | 1 | |
Career Total | 237 | 1 | 35 | 1 | 28 | 0 | 300 | 2 |
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