James Robinson (born 18 September 1982) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former player who last managed

National Premier Leagues Victoria The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

side

Ballarat Red Devils Ballarat City FC is an Australian semi-professional association football club based in Ballarat, Victoria. For most of its history, the club's home ground was Trekardo Park, before making the move to the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility in 2014 ...

from 2014 to 2015 before joining

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

club

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record of 36 league matches without defeat. Brisba ...

to manage their youth team in 2016.

Playing career

England and Iceland

Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, Robinson joined English team

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

in 1990 at the age of eight, and made his first team debut with the club in 2002, making 15 first team appearances, scoring once against

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

. He left

by mutual consent in 2005 with a year remaining on his contract. Robinson signed for Icelandic club ÍBV ahead of the 2005 season along with fellow former Crewe player Matthew Platt. Upon his return to England later that year, he signed for

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

side

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete history ...

but failed to make a first-team appearance for the club. In November 2005 he joined

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

, where he scored four goals in 14 Conference matches.

Australia

In February 2006, Robinson headed to Australia, where he joined

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

-based

Richmond SC Richmond Soccer Club is an Australian soccer club from Richmond, Victoria, an inner eastern suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Richmond compete in the Victorian State League Division 1 South-East competition, the third tier of football in Victor ...

. At that time, it was discovered that neither Accrington nor Altrincham had obtained international clearance for Robinson to transfer or play for them, a procedure required due to his spell in Iceland. Accrington escaped penalty, as Robinson had not appeared for their first team. Altrincham, however, had 18 points deducted (all points earned during Robinson's matches), nearly dooming them to relegation. Robinson was devastated by the sanctions to his former team, but went on to help

, then in

Victorian State League Division 1 State League 1 is a semi-professional association football league in Victoria, Australia. Sitting at level 4 of the Victorian league system, below the three NPL Victoria divisions, it forms part of the fifth tier of the overall Australian league ...

, earn promotion to the

Victorian Premier League The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

Melbourne Victory

It was a string of impressive performances for the third, then second-tier club – 19 games for 13 goals in 2006 – that saw Robinson initially selected as a train-on squad player for

club

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

. By Round 8, and with Melbourne's prolific striker

Archie Thompson Archie Gerald Thompson (born 23 October 1978) is an Australian former professional association football, footballer. He also is serving as a club ambassador for Melbourne Victory FC. Born in New Zealand, Thompson played youth football at the N ...

away on national duty for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Robinson was called up to a bench spot for the away match at

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, upon which he came on as an 81st-minute substitute. With the departure of Belgian defender Geoffrey Claeys in November 2006, Melbourne Victory announced the signing of the striker; at the end of the home and away season, Robinson had played a total of five games. His only start came in the Round 19 match against

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

at Members Equity Stadium. His first and only goal for the club came in the 92nd minute with a looping header against

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional Association Football, soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under North American professional sports league organization#Systems ar ...

in the 2007 A-League major semi-final second leg in front of 47,000 fans to win the game for Melbourne Victory and send them through to their first A-League grand final. Despite his contribution to the Victory's campaign, he was not offered a new contract by coach

Ernie Merrick Ernest Merrick OAM (born 15 January 1953) is a Scottish-Australian coach, who last managed A-League soccer club Newcastle Jets. He was released on 6 January 2020. He was the former head coach of the Hong Kong national football team and A-League ...

- he said that the loss of Robinson from the team was due to his Australian

visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

conditions.

Perth Glory

Robinson was signed by A-League club

for the 2007–08 season after his performances for Sydney team

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Fairfield, Sydney, New South Wales. The club has been crowned Australian champion four times. The Stallions are the soccer team of Club Marconi, a social ...

and after impressing on a pre season trial.

North Queensland Fury

Robinson was a founder member of the

North Queensland Fury Northern Fury Football Club was an Australian professional soccer club based in Townsville, Queensland. The club was founded in 2008 and competed in the A-League under the name North Queensland Fury. On 1 March 2011, the club was removed from t ...

team and made several appearances for the team.

Late career

Towards the end of his playing career, Robinson had a spell at Victorian Premier League side

Oakleigh Cannons Oakleigh Cannons Football Club is a soccer club based in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia. The club, established by members of Oakleigh's Greek Australian community, currently competes in the NPL Victoria. The cl ...

in 2011, then a two-year stay at

Bulleen Lions FC Bulleen Lions is an Australian semi-professional football club based in the Melbourne suburb Bulleen. Founded in 1974 by Melbourne's Italian community, the club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2, the second high ...

, a brief journey to

Indonesia Super League Liga 1 ( en, League 1), also known as BRI Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons with Bank Rakyat Indonesia, is the men's top professional football division of the Indonesian football league system. Administered by the PT Liga Indonesia Baru (), Liga 1 i ...

side

Sriwijaya FC Sriwijaya Football Club, commonly known as Sriwijaya riwiˈdʒajaor SFC, is an Indonesian professional football club based in Palembang, South Sumatra, that competes in the Liga 2, the second tier of Indonesian football. The club was founded o ...

and then

Dandenong Thunder Dandenong Thunder SC is a soccer club from Dandenong, a suburb in the South-East region of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. They are an Albanian Australian-backed club. Thunder compete in the National Premier Leagues Victoria. In 2012, Dandenon ...

back in Victoria.

Coaching career

Ballarat Red Devils

On 13 January 2014,

announced the signing of Robinson as player-coach ahead of their inaugural NPLV season. Unfortunately, Ballarat were relegated from the Victorian top flight on the final matchday. In the 2015 season, Ballarat finished fourth and the Englishman was voted NPL 1 Coach of the Year by his peers. Robinson resigned from his position at Ballarat in November 2015.

Brisbane Roar Youth

On 7 September 2016 it was announced that Robinson was taking charge of

Brisbane Roar FC Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional association football, soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record ...

's youth side for the National Youth League and

National Premier Leagues Queensland The National Premier League Queensland, run by Football Queensland, is the top tier state-level football (soccer) competition in Queensland. The conference is a sub division of the National Premier Leagues. The inaugural season kicked off in Marc ...

competitions.

References

External links

North Queensland Fury profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, James 1982 births Living people Footballers from Crewe English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players Richmond SC players Melbourne Victory FC players Marconi Stallions FC players Perth Glory FC players Northern Fury FC players Oakleigh Cannons FC players FC Bulleen Lions players Sriwijaya F.C. players Dandenong Thunder SC players Ballarat City FC players English Football League players National League (English football) players A-League Men players English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Iceland English expatriate sportspeople in Australia English expatriate sportspeople in Indonesia Expatriate men's footballers in Iceland Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Expatriate men's footballers in Indonesia English football managers English expatriate football managers Expatriate soccer managers in Australia