Sir Bobby Robson – A True Hero and a Gent

Sir Bobby Robson who died on the 31/07/09 was one of the most respected football managers in the world. He was born in 1933 and named Robert William Robson, but became known only as Bobby throughout his illustrious career.

He was born in Sacriston, in County Durham, and once a Geordie, always a Geordie, even if the rest of us in the UK can’t understand a word most of them say!

Although it was cancer that took him away, he was actually diagnosed with it way back in 1991, and managed to accomplish more in that time with the disease than the majority of healthy folk on the planet, and carried more respect than probably all of the Premiership footballers playing today put together.

Due to his disease in his last few years he founded Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, to aid with cancer research, which upon his death had made an astonishing £1.3 million ($2.1M), and will still continue to bring in money as his wife continues the work.

He first started out as a professional football player playing with Fulham (2 spells), West Bromwich Albion, and for some strange reason known only to himself, Vancouver in Canada! This career spanned more than 20 years, and although never one of the greatest he still managed to get himself in the England football team for 20 caps.

However, although his football career was pretty well above average during his time, he really hit it off when he retired as a player and took up management in 1968, taking a job with Fulham who he’d spent over 10 years with. He didn’t stay long though as he was offered a job with Ipswich Town and was with them between 1969–82, a time very rare in the game these days.

It was during his town at Ipswich Town that Sir Bobby Robson showed the world just what a magician he was taking them first to Texaco Cup glory in 1973, followed by the FA Cup in 1978, and then the UEFA Cup in 1981, and this made him an icon in the eyes of Ipswich supporters.

By this time his skill had not gone unnoticed by the FA and he eventually took up the job of managing the England team in 1982 through to 1990 and took the team to what is now still one of the best results in the World Cup in Mexico 1986. After a poor start, which seems to be the norm for the English team, Sir Bobby managed to fire them up to progress all the way to the last eight when against Argentina, Diego Maradona knocked them out by using a handball technique to score a goal! Payback for the Falklands War maybe!!

After that stint he was then snapped up by PSV Eindhoven in Holland, and won the championship twice with them 1991 & 1992. After that Sir Bobby Robson spent a few years at FC Porto with more success, winning the Cup of Portugal in 1994 and the Portuguese Championship in both 1995 and 1996. Not content with that, he then moved to Barcelona and triumphed yet again winning the Spanish Super Cup in 1996, the Copa del Rey in 1997, and again in ’97 the European Cup Winners' Cup.

After that he then spent another spell at PSV Eindhoven and finished his managerial career at his beloved Newcastle United, and then spent a lot of time in front of the TV cameras in his later years.

Sir Bobby Robson was honoured for his achievements with a CBE in 1990 and then knighted by Prince Charles in 2002.

Sir Bobby Robson leaves a big hole in the game of football and will be remembered for decades to come and will always be marked down in the history for what he really was, a hero and a real gent. Rest in Peace.