Sir Bobby Robson Biography

Sir Bobby Robson was one of the greats in the world of football. A former England international player and manager, he received a CBE and later a knighthood for his services to football, the UEFA President’s Award and has been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. Sir Bobby is also one of Show Racism the Red Card’s Honorary Patrons, having got involved with the campaign when in charge of Newcastle United FC and attending his first event at St James’ Park in 2002.

Sir Bobby appeared at one of the SRtRC events at St James’ Park in 2003 when he was being filmed by the BBC for the documentary ‘Just Call me Bobby’. The documentary followed Sir Bobby on a day in charge of Newcastle United. It was presented by Gary Lineker and both Sir Bobby and Gary joined the panel at the event. The inclusion of the event in such a high profile documentary was a real boost to the profile of the SRtRC campaign. During his time at NUFC, Sir Bobby also ensured that members of the squad attended events and gave their support too.

As a player, Sir Bobby played for Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and the Vancouver Royals as an inside forward. He also collected 20 caps for the England National team. On retiring from the playing side of the game he became manager of Fulham, with whom he had two spells as a player. His time in charge of Fulham only lasted a year however and in 1969 he became manager of Ipswich Town FC. Sir Bobby was manager at Ipswich Town for 13 years, which included a UEFA cup victory and ten seasons where the club finished outside the top-six only once. In 2002, Ipswich Town erected a life-size statue of Sir Bobby outside Portman Road and she was made life-president of the club.

In 1982 Sir Bobby was offered the job of England Manager and he accepted. Sir Bobby was in charge of England until the end of the 1990 World Cup, where he led the team to the Semi-Final, losing on penalties to Germany. This was the only time England have made it to the semi-finals at a World Cup, other than when they won the competition in 1966.

After leaving the England job, Sir Bobby had was manager of PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, FC Porto, Barcelona and Newcastle United – he was successful at every club he was in charge of, winning trophies with PSV, Porto and Barcelona.

Sir Bobby defeated bowel cancer in 1992, a malignant melanoma in 1995, a tumour in his lung and a brain tumour in 2006. In 2007 Sir Bobby was diagnosed with cancer in both lungs and following this diagnosis and his earlier experiences devoted all of his time to helping to fight the disease. He set up the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, which raised over £1.2 million pounds to purchase equipment for a cancer research centre, which opened in 2008 on his 76^th birthday.  Sir Bobby died in 2009 following a long battle with cancer prompting many touching tributes from those who knew him.  Gary Lineker said, "he was such a wonderful man, a very popular figure and will be deeply missed by everyone in the country".
 
The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation continues to raise money for cancer research and other related projects.