Iwan Roberts

Watford

Roberts made his first-team debut during the 1985–86 season and scored his first goal in professional football on 16 September 1986; it was the only goal in a 1–0 win against Manchester United at Vicarage Road. Having made only one full first team appearance for Watford prior to the match, Roberts came on as a second-half substitute to score the winning goal from a narrow angle. Watford ended the season in ninth position, and despite having three years of his contract remaining, Taylor left the club to join Aston Villa. Roberts broke through in the following season, making 31 appearances in all competitions and scoring three goals, but Watford finished 19th in the table and were relegated to the Second Division. The 1988–89 season saw him make 32 appearances in total, scoring six goals, with Watford finishing fourth, but failing to progress past the 1989 Football League play-offs. Roberts' chances were restricted the following season, when he made just nine league appearances, scoring twice. He scored nine goals in 63 league matches in total for Watford, but felt that he was failing to get enough opportunities and moved to Division Three club Huddersfield Town prior to the start of the 1990–91 season, for £275,000. One of his contemporaries at Watford was future Norwich City manager, Glenn Roeder. Roberts remembers Roeder as "an absolute gentleman ... I can't speak highly enough of him. He helped me a great deal with his experience and any problems that the…

While a Watford player, Roberts was called up for Wales for the first time, an April 1989 friendly game against Israel. He made his debut for the Welsh national team on 11 October 1989, when he took to the field in a 2–1 defeat to the Netherlands in a World Cup qualifier at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham. With both Ian Rush and Mark Hughes suspended, Roberts started the game alongside Malcolm Allen. He had to wait more than two years for his next international appearance, when his domestic form for Huddersfield saw him leading scorer in Division Two. Roberts played in a 1–1 friendly against Austria in April 1992. He earned two more caps that year at the Kirin Cup in Japan, suffering a 1–0 loss against Argentina and receiving a red card in a 1–0 victory over the host nation for a foul on Masami Ihara. Roberts made three appearances for the senior Wales team in 1994, including two qualification matches for UEFA Euro 1996 against Albania and Moldova. He was not selected for Wales again until 2000 when he made three appearances in friendlies, all losses against Finland, Brazil and Portugal. Roberts made four more appearances for his country in the qualification stages for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in 2000 and 2001. He won a total of 15 caps for his country over a 12-year period, including a single appearance and one goal for the Wales B team, but failed to score for the senior team. Roberts is phlegmatic that he made only 17 appearances ("most as substitute") for Wales, as he "had…

Standing at 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), Roberts was known for scoring a high proportion of his goals with headers. He had a strong partnership with Craig Bellamy, beginning when Bellamy broke into the Norwich first team in 1997, aged 18. They also featured together for Wales, although Roberts never managed to score in 15 appearances for the national side. Roberts said "I absolutely loved playing up-front with [Bellamy] ... we hit it off straight away, probably more so than anyone else I ever played with. It was like telepathy between us." He described the relationship as "the classic big man, little man" and noted that in their first season together for Norwich, Roberts scored 24 goals and Bellamy 17.

Iwan Wyn Roberts was born in Bangor, Gwynedd, on 26 June 1968. He grew up in Barmouth, on the west coast of Wales, as a Liverpool fan. Roberts says that most football fans would know him ("if you know me at all") as "that gap-toothed ginger lunk". He started losing his front tooth when he was just 10: his best friend's heel chipping half of his tooth off, the result of an incident playing football. Some years later, a dentist removed the stump when an abscess developed. He lost his second front tooth as the result of an elbow to the mouth from Darran Rowbotham when he was 18, playing for Watford in a pre-season friendly. Roberts credits his school PE teacher, Iolo Owen, as a great influence in his career, introducing him into men's football aged 15: "He picked me for the school team and got me into the local men's team, Harlech Town ... as he was the manager ... it toughened me up and made me a lot stronger." Critical to Roberts' thinking when he joined Watford was that coach Tom Walley was, like himself, Welsh-speaking, as was professional Malcolm Allen, against whom Roberts had played in the local Welsh leagues. He was also influenced by Graham Taylor's record of giving youth players opportunities. Roberts joined Watford as a trainee, signing his first professional contract in July 1986, shortly after his 18th birthday.