Paul William Robinson (born October 15, 1979 in Beverley) is a professional football player, and the England international goalkeeper. He currently plays for Tottenham Hotspur.
He started his career at Leeds United, making 119 appearances for the club, having made his debut against Chelsea back in 1998 keeping a clean sheet. He transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in May 2004 for a fee of £1,500,000. As well as being a Tottenham first team regular, he is also an England international and was part of the Euro 2004 squad. He is currently considered England’s “Number One", preferred to Manchester City goalkeeper David James. His exceptional shot stopping ability and reaction saves allied with size make Robinson one of the finest keepers in Europe if not the World.
In 2005-06, Robinson signed a seven year contract extension, showing his loyalty to the club, after turning down offers from Manchester United (which isn’t surprising considering his allegiance to Leeds United). This contract will keep him at the club until 2012.
Notably Robinson scored a goal during his time at Leeds against Swindon Town in the 2003-04 season at the end of a dramatic League Cup game, which is incredibly rare for a goalkeeper. This goal forced the game into extra time, then penalties where Robinson added to his earlier heroics by saving two penalties in the shoot-out helping his team to victory. The goal was even voted one of the 100 greatest ever Leeds United goals.
Robinson was one of the few Spurs squad members not to be struck down by food poisoning on the evening of 6 May 2006 before their crucial final game of the season against West Ham United. A win would have seen Spurs qualify for the Champions League for the first time ever, ahead of arch-rivals Arsenal. However, several players woke up the next morning feeling ill and Spurs tried to get the game postponed. They countered that the players needed extra time to get fluids and some food on board as they had not been able to eat until then. Due to a number of factors, a suitable time could not be agreed to reschedule the game. Additionally, the Premier League were not willing to rule out punishment if the game did not go ahead, so Spurs turned down the option of a minimal postponement of two hours and played the game on time with several key players clearly not match fit. Spurs went on to lose the game and surrendered 4th position in the league and a Champions League place to Arsenal. Conspiracy theories abound, but manager Martin Jol did not think dirty tricks had been going on.
As of May 30, 2006 Robinson has played for England 20 times. On May 8, 2006 he was named in England’s 2006 World Cup squad for the finals in Germany.