Robert William Fleck (born 11 August 1965, in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

) is a former

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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 ...

and manager. Fleck played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

from 1983 until 2001, notably in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

for

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

, in England for

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

FA Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

, and for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

. Fleck also played for

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 ...

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

. Fleck gained four caps for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and featured in the 1990 World Cup. Fleck went into management in 2000 with Dr. Kenny Muir with a spell as player-managers of Non-league

Gorleston Gorleston-on-Sea (), known colloquially as Gorleston, is a town in the Borough of Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, England, to the south of Great Yarmouth. Situated at the mouth of the River Yare it was a port town at the time of the Domesday Book ...

, and later having a four-year spell in charge of

Diss Town Diss Town Football Club is a football club based in Diss, Norfolk, England. Affiliated to the Norfolk County FA they are currently members of the and play at Brewers Green Lane. History The club was established in 1888 following a suggestion ...

. Fleck was made a member of Norwich City's Hall of Fame. Since retiring as a player, he has worked in football management, but is now a teaching assistant in Norwich.

Playing career

Fleck started his senior career with

under manager

Jock Wallace John Martin Bokas Wallace (6 September 1935 – 24 July 1996) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. Wallace played as a goalkeeper, and has the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Sco ...

, although it was only after the arrival of

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...

as player/manager in 1986 that he began to make a real impact, scoring 22 goals in 48 appearances in season 1986–87. Fleck's goal tally that season included four hat-tricks; in league games against

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

(twice) and

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

, and in a UEFA Cup tie against

Ilves Tampere Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the cit ...

. In December 1987 Fleck was transferred for £580,000 to

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

. He scored 66 goals in 181 appearances in his first spell with the club, earning a call-up to the Scotland Squad, winning 4 caps, including 2 at the

1990 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 M ...

. 'Flecky' attained hero status among Norwich supporters and was voted

Norwich City player of the year The Norwich City Player of the Season award is voted for annually by Norwich City's supporters, in recognition of the best overall performance by an individual player throughout the football season. As a mark of respect, the trophy is named The B ...

in 1992 which was the final season of his first spell at

Carrow Road Carrow Road is an association football stadium located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship side Norwich City. The stadium is located toward the east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum. N ...

. He helped them finish fourth in the league in 1989, when they also reached the

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 ...

semi-final, though Fleck and his team-mates were unable to compete in the following season's

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

due to the ongoing ban on English clubs in European competitions that followed the

Heysel disaster The Heysel Stadium disaster ( it, Strage dell'Heysel ; german: link=no, Katastrophe von Heysel ; french: Drame du Heysel ; nl, Heizeldrama ) was a crowd disaster that occurred on 29 May 1985 when mostly Juventus fans escaping from a breach by L ...

of 1985. Fleck helped the Canaries reach another FA Cup semi-final in 1992, where they surprisingly lost to Second Division underdogs

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 ...

, Fleck returned from injury to play in this game but he was clearly unfit. He controversially moved on to

for a (then) club record fee of £2.1million just before the first season of the new

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

got underway, Norwich turned down the bid, but he forced it through by threatening to go on strike and refuse to play for the club again. At the time the deal was a record sale for Norwich, As part of the deal a clause was included to ruled Fleck out of playing against Norwich the 1st time they met just a couple of weeks later. Despite his now legendary status at Norwich, at the time he was probably one of the most hated players among Norwich fans. The move proved unsuccessful; Fleck scored just four goals in 48 appearances and was loaned out to

and

. He missed out on a place in Chelsea's squad for the

1994 FA Cup Final The 1994 FA Cup Final was an association football match that took place on 14 May 1994 at Wembley Stadium in London to determine the winner of the 1993–94 FA Cup. It was contested between Chelsea and Manchester United. Four goals in the secon ...

, which they lost 4–0 to

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 ...

. Despite his dismal goalscoring record at Chelsea, he is remembered fondly by the club's fans, who sang a song in his honour – ''We all live in a Robert Fleck world'' – based on the lyrics of Yellow Submarine by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. Fleck re-joined Norwich (who had just been relegated from the Premier League) for £650,000 in September 1995 after a loan spell, to begin with he made an impact forming a solid partnership with Ashley Ward up front, but after Ward was sold due to Norwich's financial problems, his performance was no where as consistent as in his first spell at

, and they failed to make a serious attempt to push for promotion in any of his three seasons back at the club. He moved to

towards the end of the 1997–98 season, spending one season at the

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

club, and in nine league games he scored once against Luton Town (in the first game at the

Madejski Stadium The Madejski Stadium (currently known as the Select Car Leasing Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Reading. It is the home of Reading Football Club, who play in the EFL Championship. It also provides the finish for the Rea ...

), before injury ended his playing career.

Managerial career

After a spell as player-manager with

,Past players
Gorleston FC where he won the Norfolk Senior Cup in 2001, he joined

who play in the Ridgeons League, as manager in the summer of 2002. He won the Norfolk Senior Cup again in 2003 and 2005. A poor run of form during 2006 saw him sacked on 18 October 2006. Fleck returned to employment with Norwich City in May 2007, when he joined the club's scouting network.

Teaching career

Fleck is now a teaching assistant at the Parkside School, "a Norwich school for children with complex needs", a career move that developed from running coaching sessions for children at the school.

Legacy

Fleck is fourth in the list of

Norwich City FC Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

all-time goalscorers, behind Johnny Gavin,

Terry Allcock Terence Allcock (born 10 December 1935) is a former professional footballer who played for Bolton Wanderers and Norwich City. He was also a first-class cricketer. Bolton Wanderers Allcock was born in Leeds and began his football career with B ...

and

Iwan Roberts Iwan Wyn Roberts (born 26 June 1968) is a Welsh former professional footballer, who played as a striker from 1986 to 2005 for a number of clubs and the Welsh national team ) , Association = Football Association of Wales (FAW) , C ...

. In 2002, Norwich fans voted him into the club's

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

Personal life

Fleck is married to a "Norfolk girl" and has an adult daughter who is a beautician. While playing, Fleck funded trips for 18 months for a child with a terminal condition. Fleck's nephew

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

plays for

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

References

External links

Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleck, Robert 1965 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Scottish footballers Association football forwards Rangers F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Reading F.C. players Gorleston F.C. players Scotland international footballers Scotland under-21 international footballers Scottish Football League players English Football League players Premier League players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Scottish football managers Gorleston F.C. managers Diss Town F.C. managers