Michael John Robinson (12 July 1958 – 28 April 2020) was a 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 played as a striker. He appeared in more than 300 official matches in England for

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

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 ...

and

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

and played the last three seasons of his career in Spain with

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El ...

. He represented the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

at international level. Robinson settled in Spain after retiring in 1989 and went on to work as a television

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

in the following decades, hosting ''

El día después El día después () is a Spanish football show shown on #0 and formerly on Canal+. The show celebrates the "culture, passion and madness of Spanish football". It is currently hosted by former Valencia goalkeeper Santiago Cañizares and the journ ...

'' from 1991 to 2005.

Playing career

Robinson was born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, England. When he was young, his parents moved to

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 ...

to run a boarding house, and he started his career with

in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. He then moved in August 1979 to

Malcolm Allison Malcolm Alexander Allison (5 September 1927 – 14 October 2010) was an English football player and manager. Nicknamed "Big Mal", he was one of English football's most flamboyant and intriguing characters because of his panache, fedora and ...

, the fee of £750,000 being widely regarded as extravagant for a young player with no First Division experience; he was sold at a loss later that season to

, and rebuilt his reputation as both a strong and skilful attacking player. Robinson made an impact in the 1982–83

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, feeding the ball to

Gordon Smith Gordon Smith may refer to: In politics *Gordon H. Smith (born 1952), former U.S. Senator from Oregon, and current Area Authority for the LDS Church * Gordon Elsworth Smith (1918–2005), Canadian politician * Gordon Smith (academic) (1927–2009), ...

for his infamous miss in the first game with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, performing outstandingly in a 2–2 draw but eventually losing in the second match at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

(0–4). It was enough, however, for clubs to bid for him and he was keen to leave due to Brighton's

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

came in for Robinson and paid Brighton £250,000 for him and he duly battled with established

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic F.C., Celtic and 515 for Liverpoo ...

and

Ian Rush Ian James Rush (born 20 October 1961) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward. At club level Rush played for Liverpool from 1980–1987 and 1988–1996. He is the club's all-time leading goalscorer, having scored a to ...

for a place up front. In that first season his new team won three trophies – the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

, the

league cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

(where he was a substitute in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

0–0 draw against Everton, and did not feature in the replay) and the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

(being used as a replacement in

against

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

)– and he played enough games to earn a title medal. Despite showing some ability, Robinson was often on the substitutes' bench, and so moved on to

at the end of 1984. There, he was an unlucky loser at Wembley again, in the

1986 Football League Cup Final The 1986 Football League Cup Final (known for sponsorship reasons as the Milk Cup) was a football match held on 20 April 1986 between Oxford United and Queens Park Rangers. Oxford won the match 3–0 to capture the League Cup – their first and ...

0–3 defeat by

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

; however, during the run to the decisive match, he earned himself a place in QPR fans' hearts when he scored a 40-yard goal against arch-rivals

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in the quarter-final replay at

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium), in L ...

. Robinson moved to Spain to play for

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El Sa ...

in January 1987, with ex-Liverpool team-mate Sammy Lee joining in August. He recalled that he assumed that Osasuna was the name of the club's location and proceeded to look for it in a map. Questioned about why would he choose such a destination, he remarked that "financially it was the worst offer vailable But it was romantic". He retired in summer 1989 at the age of 31 after making 58

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

appearances and scoring 12 goals, two of which came in 1987–88 campaign as the

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

se overachieved for a final fifth place. Robinson, who won 24

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the

, making his debut on 28 October 1980 in a 2–0 loss in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

qualifiers, stayed in Spain after retiring, having settled very well in the country and learned

the language "The Language" is a song by Canadian rapper Drake from his third studio album ''Nothing Was the Same'' (2013). "The Language" was produced by frequent collaborator Boi-1da, along with additional production by Allen Ritter and Vinylz. It also fea ...

to fluency, a trait that was later picked up on by

Steve McManaman Steven McManaman (born 11 February 1972) is an English former footballer who played as a winger for Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester City. McManaman is one of the most decorated English footballers to have played for a club abroad and is ...

(with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

from 1999 to 2003), who regarded Robinson as his mentor.

Media career

After retiring, Robinson began his broadcasting career in Spain as a commentator for

Radio Televisión Española The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

, covering the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

in Italy. He later worked as a commentator and presenter on

Cadena SER La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is Spain's premier radio network in terms of both seniority (it was created in 1924) and audience share (it had a regular listenership in 2018 of 4,139,000). The acronym SER stands for ''Sociedad Española de Radi ...

's ''

El Larguero ''El Larguero'' (lit, The Crossbar) is a Spanish radio sports program that concentrates mostly on football discussion. The program began on Cadena SER in 1989, and is broadcast daily from 11:30 pm to 1:30 am. It is the most listened-to nighttime ...

'' and then on the subscription channel

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

, where he hosted the cult television show ''

'' for 14 years (1991–2005). Following the show's demise he continued working with the network, as co-commentator on their live coverage of the Sunday night match as well as on the studio show '' El día del fútbol'', and later by presenting a monthly sports magazine series called ''

Informe Robinson ''Informe Robinson'' () is a monthly Spanish sports magazine programme broadcast on #0 and formerly on Canal+. It is hosted by former Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in no ...

''. Speaking to Simon Hughes, Robinson said "I came over on 7 January 1987. I didn't know if I was going to be here forever. But something strange happened. I enjoyed more or less everything about Spain and the way the Spanish interpreted life. I finished up realising that I had loads in common with the Spaniards. We laughed about the same things, cried about the same things." In addition, Robinson also worked as a pundit for

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

, covering Republic of Ireland away internationals and also being the president of the Iberian Superleague, a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

league covering the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. As a broadcaster he also covered for Canal+ rugby events, including the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

and the

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

. Robinson also did

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...

work on television adverts as well as feature films, voicing the ugly sister in the dubbed Spanish versions of the ''

Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 book of the same name by William Steig. It is the first installment in the ''Shrek'' franchise. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenso ...

'' films by

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...

Illness and death

On 17 December 2018, while taking part in ''La Ventana'', a radio programme on Cadena SER, Robinson announced that he had a malignant

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

which had been found at an advanced stage and had metastasized. Doctors had told him it 'had no cure'. He died on 28 April 2020 of cancer at his home in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

at the age of 61, being survived by his wife Christine (née Sharrock) and children Liam, who worked in television production in Madrid, and Aimée, who worked in public relations in Australia. Among the tributes was one from

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...

: "We woke up with the sad news of the death of one of our own. You were the one who always made us happy about sport. We are grateful to you."

Honours and awards

Player

Liverpool *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

: 1983–84 *

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

: 1983–84 *

: 1983–84

Other awards

Premios Ondas The Premios Ondas (Spanish: literally "wave awards", also known in English as the Ondas Awards or simply The Ondas) have been given since 1954 by Radio Barcelona, a subsidiary of Cadena SER, in recognition of professionals in the fields of radio ...

: 2009 – ''

'' (Best Current affairs programme) *Adopted son of

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

(2019)

Works

* * * *

References

External links

Statistics

* * *

Television programmes

El día después
at Canal Plus
Informe Robinson
at Canal Plus

Personal

Official blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Michael 1958 births 2020 deaths English people of Irish descent English footballers Republic of Ireland association footballers Footballers from Leicester Association football forwards English Football League players Preston North End F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players La Liga players CA Osasuna players Republic of Ireland international footballers English expatriate footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain English expatriate sportspeople in Spain Irish expatriate sportspeople in Spain FA Cup Final players English television presenters Spanish television presenters Spanish television personalities English association football commentators Spanish association football commentators