Michael Robinson (footballer)
Irish association football player (1958–2020)
Michael John Robinson (12 July 1958 – 28 April 2020) was a professional footballer who played as a striker.
He appeared in more than 300 official matches in England for Preston North End, Manchester City, Brighton & Hove Albion, Liverpool and Queens Park Rangers and played the last three seasons of his career in Spain with Osasuna. He represented the Republic of Ireland at international level.
Robinson settled in Spain after retiring in 1989 and went on to work as a television pundit in the following decades, hosting El día después from 1991 to 2005.
Playing career
Robinson was born in Leicester, England. When he was young, his parents moved to Blackpool to run a boarding house, and he started his career with Preston North End in the second division. He then moved in August 1979 to Malcolm Allison's Manchester City, the fee of £750,000 being widely regarded as extravagant for a young player with no First Division experience; he was sold at a loss later that season to Brighton & Hove Albion, and rebuilt his reputation as both a strong and skilful attacking player.
Robinson made an impact in the 1982–83 FA Cup final, feeding the ball to Gordon Smith for his infamous miss in the first game with Manchester United, performing outstandingly in a 2–2 draw but eventually losing in the second match at Wembley (4–0). It was enough, however, for clubs to bid for him and he was keen to leave due to Brighton's relegation.
Liverpool came in for Robinson and paid Brighton £250,000 for him and he duly battled with established Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush for a place up front.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Michael Robinson (footballer)” as irish association football player (1958–2020). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as irish association football player (1958–2020). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1929070. VIAF identifies the subject as 4446411. The Library of Congress control number is nb2004301906. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 2020, 1989 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Michael Robinson (footballer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.