Paul Robinson
Personal information
Full name	Paul William Robinson
Date of birth	15 October 1979 (1979-10-15) (age 30)
Place of birth	Beverley, England
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[1]
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Blackburn Rovers
Number	1
Youth career
1996–1998	Leeds United
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998–2004 2004–2008 2008–	Leeds United Tottenham Hotspur Blackburn Rovers	095 (0) 137 (1) 043 (0)
National team2
2003–	England	041 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 12:23, 19 October 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 22 August 2008. * Appearances (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 joined Leeds United at 16 years of age, 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.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Leeds United

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, one of which was saved by Robinson (Swindon missed another penalty, hitting the post) to help his team to victory.^[3] In the Premier league, he conceded 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 as he had played well throughout the season.

[edit] Tottenham Hotspur

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, 80 metres 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 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 wouldn't 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,^[6] and in their 0-0 FA Cup third round draw at Cardiff City as Ledley King and Robbie Keane were both injured.^[7]

His form 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.^[8] 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. Paul Robinson had a great relationship with the Spurs fans and even started some chants before a European game against Slavia Prague. He became a real fan favourite due to his banter and interaction with the fans. After joining Blackburn Rovers he was asked what the best thing about going back to White Hart Lane was and he said "the amazing fans".

[edit] Blackburn Rovers

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 29, it was confirmed during an interview that he would be wearing the No.1 jersey left behind 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 the kind of form which earned him the England no.1 place he was inconsistent, however under Sam Allardyce his performances improved as well as consistency. 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 2009-2010 season he captained Blackburn for the first time against Manchester City but despite make some fine saves he could not prevent a 0-2 defeat. Again he captained Blackburn against West Ham, a game that Rovers earned there first point of the season as well as keeping a clean sheet in 0-0 game. Robinson has been Rovers captain in every game in the Premier League this season due to injury to 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.

[edit] International career

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. 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.^[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, although England manager Steve McClaren said he planned to make this substitution before the game.^[13]

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.^[14]

[edit] Return to England

Robinson was called back into the England squad in 2009 for 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhsatan and Andorra because regular keeper David James was injured. After Robinson's big mistake in a qualifier for Euro 2008 against Croatia he was not picked for 2 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 Rovers manager Sam Allardyce has said that Paul Robinson should be the number one goalkeeper for England again due to his impressive club form.

[edit] Personal life

Paul Robinson was born at the Beverley Westwood hospital and attended Beverley Grammar School in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. 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 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. Jack had suffered health problems and was in hospital whilst Paul was playing in the Carling 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 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.^[15]

[edit] Honours

Tottenham Hotspur

• League Cup Winner 2007/08

[edit] Career stats

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Paul Robinson career stats at Soccerbase
• Official Tottenham Hotspur Profile
• TheFA.com profile
• Paul Robinson FIFA competition record
• Profile at Football-Lineups.com

England Squad v • d • e England squad – UEFA Euro 2004 1 James • 2 G. Neville • 3 A. Cole • 4 Gerrard • 5 Terry • 6 Campbell • 7 Beckham • 8 Scholes • 9 Rooney • 10 Owen • 11 Lampard • 12 Bridge • 13 Robinson • 14 P. Neville • 15 King • 16 Carragher • 17 Butt • 18 Hargreaves • 19 J. Cole • 20 Dyer • 21 Heskey • 22 Walker • 23 Vassell • Coach: Eriksson v • d • e England squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Robinson • 2 Neville • 3 A. Cole • 4 Gerrard • 5 Ferdinand • 6 Terry • 7 Beckham • 8 Lampard • 9 Rooney • 10 Owen • 11 J. Cole • 12 Campbell • 13 James • 14 Bridge • 15 Carragher • 16 Hargreaves • 17 Jenas • 18 Carrick • 19 Lennon • 20 Downing • 21 Crouch • 22 Carson • 23 Walcott • Coach: Eriksson