Robbie Earle

Port Vale

An attacking midfielder, Earle was a junior player at Stoke City whilst he attended Longton High School. However, after suffering from a broken leg, he was released from the Victoria Ground. He was snapped up by Stoke's local rivals Port Vale, where he turned professional in 1982. He had been scouted by Ray Williams. Earle made his Port Vale debut under John McGrath in a 1–0 defeat by Swindon Town at the County Ground on 28 August 1982. He scored his first goal in his next appearance, in a 4–1 win over Aldershot at the Recreation Ground. He finished the 1982–83 campaign with one goal in nine appearances, as the "Valiants" won promotion out of the Fourth Division. He made 13 appearances in 1983–84; John Rudge replaced McGrath as manager in December, but could not stop the club from sliding straight back out of the Third Division. Earle won a regular first-team place in August 1984. He hit 19 goals in 56 games in 1984–85, including a hat-trick against Hereford United at Vale Park on 2 February; Earle and Alistair Brown's partnership got the club a combined total of 40 goals. An ever-present in the 1985–86 Fourth Division promotion squad, he scored 17 goals in 58 games; he and strike partner Andy Jones bagged a total of 35 goals for the club. Earle made 142 consecutive appearances between September 1984 and January 1987, the run coming to an end due to a groin strain. The strain led to a hernia operation in the autumn of 1987, but he returned to first-team…

Though English-born, Earle was eligible to play for Jamaica at international level because of his Jamaican parents. He hoped to be called up to the England squad, before he accepted the call-up from Jamaica at the age of 32. Earle was the scorer of Jamaica's first ever World Cup goal, in a 3–1 defeat by Croatia at the Stade Félix-Bollaert, at the 1998 World Cup in France. He played in all three of the Group H games, as Jamaica lost 5–0 to Argentina at Parc des Princes and beat Japan 2–1 at Stade de Gerland.

Since his retirement, Earle has moved into sports journalism. He has worked for Capital Radio, Radio 5 Live, BBC, ESPN, ITV, Sky Sports and OnDigital. Earle was a regular pundit on ITV's football coverage, as well as World Football Daily, and occasionally joins the team on ESPN PressPass. He has also written columns for the London Evening Standard and for the Stoke-on-Trent Evening Sentinel. In June 2010, he had his £150,000 a year contract with ITV cancelled for giving away World Cup tickets for the Netherlands v Denmark match. Meant for family and friends, he passed them on to a friend who then sold them to Bavaria Brewery. The Brewery company orchestrated an ambush marketing event in breach of FIFA rules. The incident also led to him losing his role as an ambassador for England's 2018 World Cup bid. Earle described his actions as "naive" and insisted that he had "not profited in any way". It later emerged that ITV had given Earle 400 free tickets for the tournament, including 40 for the final itself. This allocation had a RRP of around £70,000. Not permitted to sell the tickets, Earle had freely given them out to friends and family, unaware that a 'close friend' would then sell a significant number on to the Dutch company. In March 2011, he became a broadcasting analyst at US Major League Soccer side Portland Timbers. In 2004, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Show Racism the Red Card. Earle fronted a consortium bidding to take control of AFC Wimbledon in February…

Earle attended Longton High School in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. UK magazine The Vegetarian Society stated that Earle is a vegetarian. He got married in the summer of 1989. His son, Otis, is also a footballer and was drafted by FC Dallas at the 2015 MLS SuperDraft.