Robinson playing for Blackburn Rovers |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Paul William Robinson[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 15 October 1979 [1] | ||
| Place of birth | Beverley, England | ||
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[2] | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Blackburn Rovers | ||
| Number | 1 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| York City | |||
| 1996–1998 | Leeds United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1998–2004 | Leeds United | 95 | (0) |
| 2004–2008 | Tottenham Hotspur | 137 | (1) |
| 2008– | Blackburn Rovers | 118 | (0) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 1999-2002 | England U21 | 14 | (0) |
| 2003–2007 | England | 41 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:19, 21 November 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). |
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Paul William Robinson (born 15 October 1979) is an English footballer who plays for Blackburn Rovers as a goalkeeper in the Premier League. He had also been an England international and he earned 41 caps between 2003 and 2007 before his retirement from international football in August 2010.
He joined Leeds United at 16 years of age, but did not sign on professional terms until the age of 18 where he played 95 league games and also scored a goal in a League Cup tie, featuring in total in 119 games in all competitions. In 2004, following Leeds' relegation from the Premier League, he moved to Tottenham Hotspur. He played in 175 matches for Tottenham, including 137 Premier League games, scoring another goal, before he was signed by Blackburn Rovers in 2008.
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Born in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, Robinson played for local Hull sunday league side Springhead Spartans. [3] Robinson played in the York City youth system before coming through the youth ranks at Leeds United after joining following a trial,[4] making his debut against Chelsea in 1998, keeping a clean sheet. His appearances were at first sporadic, although he was memorably called upon when Leeds faced Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League. He was Leeds' number 2 goalkeeper behind Nigel Martyn for several years, until Martyn asked Terry Venables for some time off during pre-season after going to the 2002 World Cup for England. Venables reacted angrily and Robinson then became Leeds' number one from then on. Martyn was offloaded later in the season with young keeper Scott Carson as backup for Robinson.
In the 2003–04 season he scored his first professional goal via a header from a cross against Swindon Town in the closing moments of a League Cup game, forcing extra time. The game went to a penalty shootout, one of which was saved by Robinson (Swindon missed another penalty, hitting the post) to help his team to victory.[5] Leeds were subsequently relegated that season, with Robinson having a slightly disappointing season. He showed his emotions after Leeds were relegated when he burst into tears. In the Premier league, he conceded 77 goals in 36 games.[6] Despite this somewhat dubious record Tottenham Hotspur's Director of Football David Pleat was not dissuaded in his pursuit of Robinson as he had played well throughout the season.
Robinson transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in May 2004, for a fee of £1,500,000. In his first two seasons at Spurs, he was in top form and showed why he was considered England's best goalkeeper since David Seaman. In his third season, he was very inconsistent in his performances partly due to the lack of confidence after his mistake at the beginning of the season for England against Croatia, He never fully recovered and in that season Spurs had a poor record of keeping clean sheets, but managed a fifth place finish in the league.
On 17 March 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, 80 metres from the opposition goal and the ball bounced over the head of Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster, and into goal.[7] He became the third of four goalkeeper in Premier League history (excluding own goals) to score after Peter Schmeichel for Aston Villa in 2001, Brad Friedel for Blackburn Rovers in 2004 and Tim Howard for Everton in 2012, although of the three only Robinson's team went on to win the match. He was also the third goalscoring goalkeeper in English professional football in the 2006–07 season, following goals from Gavin Ward for Tranmere Rovers and Mark Crossley for Sheffield Wednesday. This match was just before both Paul Robinson and Ben Foster were due to join up with the England squad but Robinson claimed he would not mention the incident to Foster. However, Foster said that the other players in the squad did tease him a bit about it.
Robinson captained the team in their 1–0 Football League Cup quarter-final win over Southend United,[8] and in their 0–0 FA Cup third round draw at Cardiff City as Ledley King and Robbie Keane were both injured.[9]
His form again suffered for club and country and Spurs dropped him in favour of Radek Cerny. However Robinson regained his place and collected the first major trophy of his career in Tottenham's 2–1 victory over Chelsea in the 2008 League Cup final.[10] He was dropped again after this however and ended up missing the last few games of the season due to family reasons. He did return for the final game and was on the bench.
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.[11] On 29 July it was confirmed during an interview that he would be wearing the No.1 shirt vacated by the departure of Brad Friedel. On 30 July, he made his Blackburn Rovers debut in a 2–1 victory against Northwich Victoria in a pre-season friendly. Although showing flashes of the kind of form which earned him the England No.1 place, he was inconsistent, however under Sam Allardyce his performances improved. In the final 10 games of the season, he produced his best performances of the last two years and earned man-of-the-match award against Wigan Athletic. Robinson helped Blackburn earn 37 points in the games he played in along with keeping 9 clean sheets in his 35 Premier League appearances. On the opening day of the 2009–10 season he captained Blackburn for the first time against Manchester City but despite making some fine saves he could not prevent a 0–2 defeat. Again he captained Blackburn against West Ham United, a game that Rovers earned their first point of the season as well as keeping a clean sheet in a 0–0 game. Robinson had been Rovers captain in five Premier League games during the early stages of the season due to injury to regular skipper Ryan Nelsen. Manager Sam Allardyce said he gave Robinson the armband as he had been a very vocal member of the team and showed good leadership qualities. He was the hero for Rovers in a League Cup upset against Chelsea, saving two penalties which meant Blackburn won 4–3 on penalties after a 3–3 final score. Robinson made his 75th appearance for Blackburn in a 0–0 draw against Manchester United on 11 April 2010, keeping a clean sheet. On 11 May 2010, Fabio Capello announced his 30-man preliminary squad for the World Cup finals held in South Africa, and left Robinson out, picking Portsmouth veteran David James, young Manchester City keeper Joe Hart who had had a successful season on loan to Birmingham City, and West Ham's Robert Green. Upon this selection, Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce said that he was staggered: "It is completely the wrong decision," he said."If you look at his form for Rovers, there has not been a better goalkeeper who has been so consistent." Robinson ended the season with a total of 13 Premier League clean sheets, which was the best record of all the English goalkeepers. He featured in Blackburn's opening 2010–11 Premier League game against Everton at Ewood Park, playing the full 90 minutes and making a few key saves against David Moyes side in a 1-0 victory.. On 15 January 2011, Robinson made his 100th appearance for Blackburn in all competitions, playing against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a 2-0 defeat. Robinson made his 100th Premier League start for Rovers against Birmingham City in a 1-1 draw at Ewood Park.
Robinson has played 41 times for England. He was part of the UEFA Euro 2004 squad, as understudy to David James, making no appearances in the tournament. In the subsequent qualifying campaign for the 2006 FIFA 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. However, in spite of his clean sheet tally he was also criticised for being very indecisive on crosses, missing three against Trinidad and Tobago. 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.[12] 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. [13]
On 11 October 2006, during a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia, an unexpected bobble on a backpass from Gary Neville caused Robinson to miss the ball as he tried to clear it out of the penalty area, resulting in an own goal to put Croatia 2–0 up.[14] Robinson later described the incident as a freak.[15] 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, although England manager Steve McClaren said he planned to make this substitution before the game.[16]
After a 2–1 loss to Russia in Euro 2008 qualifying, in which Robinson palmed a shot into the path of Russian forward Roman Pavlyuchenko's path to allow the winner, manager Steve McClaren dropped Robinson for the final qualifying match against Croatia in November, replacing him with Scott Carson.[17]
Robinson was called back into the England squad in 2009 for 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Andorra because regular keeper David James was injured. After Robinson's mistake in a qualifier for UEFA Euro 2008 against Croatia he was not picked for two years. It was Robinson's first call up under Fabio Capello since he took charge. For the Kazakhstan game he was selected as a sub after West Ham United keeper Robert Green. Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce said that Robinson should be the number one goalkeeper for England again due to his impressive club form. Robinson failed to make the England squad for South Africa 2010 behind Joe Hart, David James and Robert Green.
On 8 August 2010, Robinson retired from international football and pulled out of the squad after being selected for the friendly match against Hungary, on 11 August.[18] He said about his retirement, "Only now have I been able to make this decision as previously I haven't been in contention for selection, I don't see myself as a number three or four keeper and find that role very frustrating."[19]
Paul Robinson was born at the Beverley Westwood hospital and attended Beverley Grammar School in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. He grew up as a Hull City fan and often went to games with his family. During winter he even helped to clear snow off the pitch to get free tickets.
Whilst playing for Leeds he moved to a house in the village of Stamford Bridge. He is married to Rebecca, his childhood sweetheart. The couple currently live in York with their daughter Lucy May and son, Jack, born 14 January 2008. Jack had suffered health problems and was in hospital whilst Paul was playing in the League Cup final, which he said was very difficult for him. After Paul moved to Blackburn Rovers Jack was rushed to hospital again and spent a few nights there. Rovers manager at the time, Paul Ince, praised Robinson's attitude during this difficult time.
On 4 September 2005, burglars raided his house 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.[20]
| Club performance | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| England | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 1998–99 | Leeds United | Premier League | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 1999–00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2000–01 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 24 | 0 | ||
| 2001–02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2002–03 | 38 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 50 | 0 | ||
| 2003–04 | 36 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 1 | ||
| Leeds United Total | 95 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 119 | 1 | ||
| 2004–05 | Tottenham Hotspur | Premier League | 36 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 0 |
| 2005–06 | 38 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 0 | ||
| 2006–07 | 38 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 54 | 1 | ||
| 2007–08 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 37 | 0 | ||
| Tottenham Hotspur Total | 137 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 175 | 1 | ||
| 2008–09 | Blackburn Rovers | Premier League | 35 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 0 |
| 2009–10 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 0 | ||
| 2010–11 | 36 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 0 | ||
| 2011–12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | ||
| Blackburn Rovers Total | 118 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 128 | 0 | ||
| Career total | 350 | 1 | 23 | 0 | 21 | 1 | 28 | 0 | 422 | 2 | ||
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