Ethan Robson (born 25 October 1996) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

. He began his career with

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, and spent time

on loan In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons ...

with

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

and

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in ...

, before joining Blackpool in 2020.

Early years

Robson was born in

Houghton-le-Spring Houghton-le-Spring ( ) is a town in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England which has its recorded origins in Norman times. Historically in County Durham, it is now administered as part of the Tyne and Wear county. It is s ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

, and attended

St Robert of Newminster Catholic School St Robert of Newminster Catholic School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Washington in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. The school is named after Saint Robert of Newminster. As a Catholic school it ...

in nearby

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Club career

Sunderland

Robson started his career with the youth team at local side

, joining the club at the age of eight and rose through the ranks to go to a full-time professional with the first team in the summer of 2014. He featured regularly and captained the development squad and under-23 side before signing a two-year contract extension in April 2016. Robson was named the

Premier League 2 The Professional Development League is a system of youth football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Football Association via the Elite Player Performanc ...

Player of the Month for August 2016. He played three games for the under-21 side in the

2016–17 EFL Trophy The 2016–17 EFL Trophy, known as the Checkatrade Trophy for sponsorship reasons, was the 33rd season in the history of the competition and the first since being rebranded from Football League Trophy. It was played as a knock-out tournament for E ...

, and also appeared as an unused substitute on several occasions for the first team. Robson made his first-team debut in September 2017, when he replaced James Vaughan as a late substitute in the 3–0 defeat to Everton in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. A few days later he made his league debut in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

in a home defeat to

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

. Robson was loaned to

in January 2019. He made 13 appearances in the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

and scored twice. On 2 September 2019, Robson headed out on loan again, this time joining

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

, where he played regularly until returning to Sunderland in January 2020. Robson was released by Sunderland when his contract expired at the end of the 2019–20 season, bringing to an end a 16-year spell with the club during which he made just nine league appearances.

Blackpool

On 6 August 2020, Robson joined

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

on a two-year deal with an option of a third. On 11 November 2020, he scored his first goal for the club in a 3–0

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

win over Leeds United U21s. Robson joined League One club

on a season-long loan on 1 July 2021. He made his league debut for the club on 7 August 2021 in a 3–3 draw away to

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

on 7 August 2021. Robson scored his first MK Dons goal in a 1–0 home league win over

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

on 11 September 2021. On 17 January 2022, Robson was recalled early from his loan by Blackpool due to injuries within the squad, amid rumours MK Dons had made two failed bids to sign him permanently. Robson was released from his Blackpool contract in May 2022, at the end of the 2021–2022 season.

Milton Keynes Dons

On 15 June 2022, Robson's former loan club Milton Keynes Dons announced he would be returning to the club on a permanent basis effective 1 July 2022 following his release from Blackpool.

Career statistics

Honours

Blackpool *EFL League One play-offs:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual *

Player of the Month: August 2016

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Robson, Ethan 1996 births Living people English men's footballers Sportspeople from Houghton-le-Spring Footballers from Tyne and Wear Men's association football midfielders Sunderland A.F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players