Sir Bobby Robson - an obituary

Sir Bobby Robson, who passed away this morning at the age of 76, was capped 20 times for England as a player and managed the national team for eight years.

As a wing-half with West Bromwich Albion he made his England debut against France at Wembley in 1957, scoring twice in a resounding 4-0 victory. In the following year he featured in three of England’s matches in the World Cup in Sweden.

Sir Bobby had enjoyed an outstanding 13 years as manager of Ipswich Town, winning The FA cup in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981, before The Football Association offered him the job of ‘National Coach’ in 1982.

He managed England in 95 internationals, taking them to the World Cup Finals of 1986 (Mexico) and 1990 (Italy) and the European Championship Finals in 1988 (West Germany). England were quarter finalists in Mexico and semi-finalists in Italy, the latter still the team’s best performance on foreign soil.

Sir Bobby went on to manage several club sides with great distinction, winning the Dutch Championship twice with PSV Eindhoven and the Portuguese Championship twice with FC Porto. He also won the European Cup Winners’ Cup with Barcelona.

He returned 'home' to Newcastle United to a heroes welcome in 1999 and managed the Magpies for five years. He guided them from bottom of the Premier League when he arrived, to fourth and third-placed finishes, sealing Champions League qualification for two successive seasons.

Following his fifth diagnosis with cancer, he decided to devote the remaining years of his life to helping fight the disease. In March 2008 he launched the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and within eight months £1 million had been raised for cancer research.