Michael Robinson

Robinson was born in Leicester, England. When he was young, his parents moved to Blackpool to run a boarding house, and he started his career with Preston North End in the second division. He then moved in August 1979 to Malcolm Allison's Manchester City, 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 Brighton & Hove Albion, and rebuilt his reputation as both a strong and skilful attacking player. Robinson made an impact in the 1982–83 FA Cup final, feeding the ball to Gordon Smith for his infamous miss in the first game with Manchester United, performing outstandingly in a 2–2 draw but eventually losing in the second match at Wembley (4–0). It was enough, however, for clubs to bid for him and he was keen to leave due to Brighton's relegation. Liverpool came in for Robinson and paid Brighton £250,000 for him and he duly battled with established Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush for a place up front. In that first season his new team won three trophies – the league, the league cup (where he was a substitute in the final 0–0 draw against Everton, and did not feature in the replay) and the European Cup (being used as a replacement in the final against AS Roma)– 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 Queens Park Rangers at the end of 1984. There, he was an unlucky loser at…

After retiring, Robinson began his broadcasting career in Spain as a commentator for RTVE, covering the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. He later worked as a commentator and presenter on Cadena SER's El Larguero and then on the subscription channel Canal+, where he hosted the cult television show El día después 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. 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, covering Republic of Ireland away internationals and also being the president of the Iberian Superleague, a rugby union league covering the Iberian Peninsula. As a broadcaster he also covered for Canal+ rugby events, including the World Cup and the Six Nations Championship. Robinson also did voice-over work on television adverts as well as feature films, voicing the ugly sister in the dubbed Spanish versions of the Shrek films by DreamWorks Animation.

Player

Brighton & Hove Albion

FA Cup runner-up: 1982–83 Liverpool

Football League First Division: 1983–84 Football League Cup: 1983–84 European Cup: 1983–84

Other awards

Premios Ondas: 2009 – Informe Robinson (Best Current affairs programme) Adopted son of Cádiz (2019)