Robert Thomas Taylor (born 21 October 1994) is a Finnish professional footballer 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 ...

and wing-back for Major League Soccer club

Inter Miami Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami, known as Inter Miami CF or simply Inter Miami, is an American professional soccer club based in the Miami metropolitan area. Established in 2018, the club began play in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the 2 ...

and the Finland national team.

Club career

Youth

Taylor joined the youth team at JJK in 2004, and stayed with the club until senior level. During this time, he had spells in the country of his father's birth, England, with

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and then Lincoln City, who he joined on a two-year scholarship in 2011.

Boston Town (loan)

Taylor was loaned out to

Boston Town Boston Town Football Club is a football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. It is currently a member of the and plays at Tattershall Road. History The club was established as Boston Football Club in 1963 by former officials of Bosto ...

of the

United Counties League The United Counties League (also known after its sponsor as the ''Uhlsport United Counties League'') is an English football league covering Northamptonshire, Rutland and Bedfordshire and most of Leicestershire as well as parts of Buckinghamshi ...

in 2013, where he made one appearance.

Barnet

Later in 2013, he joined

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

, where he was due to sign a professional contract, but this fell through following their relegation from the

English 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 Engl ...

JJK

Taylor played for JJK in the

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' ( Finnish for 'Number One'; sv, Ettan) is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga), although it is the highest league managed by the Football Association of Finland. The teams also pla ...

until 2015, when he joined

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikka ...

side

RoPS Rops may refer to: People * Daniel-Rops (1901–1965), French writer and historian * Félicien Rops (1833–1898), Belgian artist Places * Rops (peak), a mountain in Kosovo Sports * Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS), a Finnish football club T ...

AIK

In July 2017, Taylor was transferred to

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

for €100,000.

Tromsø (loan)

He joined

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the ...

on loan for the 2018 season, and then permanently for the 2019 season.

Brann

On 20 January 2020, Taylor penned a three-year deal with Brann, which saw

Ruben Yttergård Jenssen Ruben Yttergård Jenssen (born 4 May 1988) is a Norwegian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Eliteserien club Tromsø, and the Norwegian national team. He was playing regularly for Tromsø in the Tippeligaen since 2008, and became one of ...

go the other way.

Inter Miami

On 11 February 2022, Taylor moved to Major League Soccer side

on a two-year deal with an option for a further year, for a transfer fee of $500,000. He was scouted by the club to play as a winger and made his debut in the season opener on 26 February, a 0–0 draw with the Chicago Fire. During the

2023 Leagues Cup The 2023 Leagues Cup will be the third edition of the Leagues Cup, an inter-league soccer tournament between Major League Soccer and Liga MX. It will be held from July 21 to August 19, 2023, with all 77 matches held in either the United Sta ...

, Taylor formed an attacking partnership with new Miami signings

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

Sergio Busquets Sergio Busquets Burgos (, ; born 16 July 1988) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for La Liga club Barcelona, where he is captain. He is considered to be a deep-lying playmaker capable of directing gameplay ...

, and

Jordi Alba Jordi Alba Ramos (born 21 March 1989) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for La Liga club Barcelona and the Spain national team. He is often regarded as one of the best left-backs of his generation. Alba started his ...

that drew comparisons to Messi's earlier teammates

Ángel Di María Ángel Fabián Di María (born 14 February 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for club Juventus and the Argentina national team. He can play as either a winger or attacking midfielder. Di María began his career with R ...

and

Andrés Iniesta Andrés Iniesta Luján (; born 11 May 1984) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder and is the captain of J1 League club Vissel Kobe. Considered one of the greatest midfielders of all time, Iniesta has spent most of hi ...

. He scored five goals and had three assists in seven matches as the club won their first trophy. On 25 October 2023, Inter Miami announced they had exercised their option to keep Taylor in Miami until the end of 2024.

International career

Taylor has been capped by Finland at under-17, under-19, under-20, under-21 and

senior level Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

. He made his debut for the senior side on 9 January 2017 as a substitute in a 1–0 friendly win over

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

. On 11 October 2020, Taylor scored his first goal in a 2–0

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

victory over

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

. On 1 June 2021, Taylor was selected for Finland's

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

squad, but he did not appear in any of the matches of the tournament. In March 2024, after Taylor was already named in the Finland squad for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs The play-offs of the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament will decide the last three teams that will qualify for the UEFA Euro 2024 final tournament in Germany. The twelve participants of the play-offs will be selected based on their performance in ...

match against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, Taylor declined the call-up stating that he wants to focus more on an important MLS regular season match against

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The club was established in October 1994 and be ...

Personal life

Taylor's father Paul is an English former footballer who played for

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura (or KuPS) is a Finnish football club, based in the ninth most populated city of Finland, Kuopio. KuPS plays in Finland's Premier League, Veikkausliiga. KuPS has won the Finnish championship six times, the Finnish Cup 4 time ...

in the 1990s. Paul resides in Jyväskylä and currently coaches youth teams in a local club Jyväskylän Komeetat.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 17 October 2023. Finland score listed first, score column indicates score after each Taylor goal.''

Honours

Inter Miami *

Leagues Cup The Leagues Cup is an annual association football competition between clubs from Major League Soccer and Liga MX in North America. It debuted in July 2019 with four teams participating from each league. The first edition was a single-eliminati ...

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

References

External links

Robert Taylor
at the Brann website {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Robert 1994 births Living people Finnish people of English descent Finnish men's footballers Finland men's youth international footballers Finland men's under-21 international footballers Finland men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders JJK Jyväskylä players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Boston Town F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Rovaniemen Palloseura players AIK Fotboll players Tromsø IL players SK Brann players Inter Miami CF players United Counties League players Veikkausliiga players Ykkönen players Allsvenskan players Eliteserien players UEFA Euro 2020 players Finnish expatriate men's footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Finnish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Major League Soccer players Footballers from Kuopio