Paul Robinson (goalkeeper)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul William Robinson (born October 15, 1979 in Beverley) is a professional football player, and the current England international goalkeeper. His current club is Tottenham Hotspur.

He started his career at Leeds United, making 119 appearances for the club, having made his debut against Chelsea back in 1998 keeping a clean sheet. He transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in May 2004 for a fee of £1,500,000. As well as being a Tottenham first team regular, he is also an England international and was part of the Euro 2004 squad. He is currently England's first choice goalkeeper.

In 2005-06, Robinson signed a seven year contract extension, showing his loyalty to the club, after turning down offers from Manchester United. This contract will keep him at the club until 2012.

Notably Robinson scored a goal during his time at Leeds against Swindon Town in the 2003-04 season at the end of a dramatic League Cup game, which is incredibly rare for a goalkeeper. This goal forced the game into extra time, then penalties where Robinson added to his earlier heroics by saving two penalties in the shoot-out helping his team to victory. The goal was even voted one of the 100 greatest ever Leeds United goals. It was not always plain sailing for Robinson during this period however, as he was criticised by his former coach O'Leary for "putting too many goodies in his mouth" - a plain reference to his weight. Since Joining Spurs, Robinson has improved his physique considerably.

Robinson was one of the few Spurs squad members not to be struck down by food poisoning on the evening of 6 May 2006 before their crucial final game of the season against West Ham United. A win would have seen Spurs qualify for the Champions League for the first time ever, ahead of arch-rivals Arsenal. However, several players woke up the next morning feeling ill and Spurs tried to get the game postponed. They countered that the players needed extra time to get fluids and some food on board as they had not been able to eat until then. Due to a number of factors, a suitable time could not be agreed to reschedule the game. Additionally, the Premier League were not willing to rule out punishment if the game did not go ahead, so Spurs turned down the option of a minimal postponement of two hours and played the game on time with several key players clearly not match fit. Spurs went on to lose the game and surrendered 4th position in the league and a Champions League place to Arsenal who would later go all the way to the final. Conspiracy theories abound, but manager Martin Jol did not think dirty tricks had been going on.

On May 8, 2006 Robinson was named in England's 2006 World Cup squad for the finals in Germany. As of July 1, 2006, Robinson has been capped for England 26 times. He was an ever present in England's 2006 World Cup campaign, keeping clean sheets in four out of five games that he played. He conceded no goals to Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago during the round robin. Against Paraguay, which was the opening World Cup game for both teams, when his counterpart Justo Villar was injured 7 minutes into the match and ended his tournament early, Robinson sent Villar his gloves as a gesture of good will after England won 1-0. During the knockout round, he shutout Ecuador and Portugal, although the latter prevailed 3-1 in the penalty shootout to end England's campaign. Robinson managed to save one penalty from Petit and Hugo Viana missed.

On 11 October 2006, Robinson was involved in an embarrassing moment during a Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia when an unfortunate bounce caused him to miss his kick, resulting in Gary Neville scoring an own goal past him to put Croatia 2-0 up; He later defined the incident as a "Freak". Somewhat ironically, he was later named Man of The Match by England fans.

[edit] Personal life

Robinson attended Beverley Grammar School in Beverley, East Yorkshire, England. At the height of his career while playing for Leeds United he moved to a luxury house in the famous village of Stamford Bridge. At this time his wife Rebecca helped out at the village's primary school because of her love for children even though she did not have a child herself.

Paul and Rebecca Robinson have a daughter named Lucy May and Boxer dogs named Tyson and Molly.

While at school, Paul played for his school team but not as a goalkeeper but as a striker, until his goalkeeping skills were noticed when the school team changed their manager.

[edit] Clubs

• Tottenham Hotspur (2004-)
• Leeds United (1997-2004)

[edit] External links

• Official Tottenham Hotspur Profile
• TheFA.com profile
• TheFA.com profile (Old)
• Paul Robinson (goalkeeper) career stats at Soccerbase
• England Expects Player Profile
• Paul Robinson Player Profile from Carling

	England squad - Euro 2004 Quarter finalists
1 James | 2 G. Neville | 3 A. Cole | 4 Gerrard | 5 Terry | 6 Campbell | 7 Beckham | 8 Scholes | 9 Rooney | 10 Owen | 11 Lampard | 12 Bridge | 13 Robinson | 14 P. Neville | 15 King | 16 Carragher | 17 Butt | 18 Hargreaves | 19 J. Cole | 20 Dyer | 21 Heskey | 22 Walker | 23 Vassell | Coach: Eriksson

	England squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Robinson | 2 Neville | 3 A. Cole | 4 Gerrard | 5 Ferdinand | 6 Terry | 7 Beckham | 8 Lampard | 9 Rooney | 10 Owen | 11 J. Cole | 12 Campbell | 13 James | 14 Bridge | 15 Carragher | 16 Hargreaves | 17 Jenas | 18 Carrick | 19 Lennon | 20 Downing | 21 Crouch | 22 Carson | 23 Walcott | Coach: Eriksson