Torres by Luca Caioli

Author:Luca Caioli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sport/Biography
Publisher: Icon Books
Published: 2009-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

A perfect marriage

Conversation with former Liverpool player, Michael Robinson

The background of his iPhone screen is red. The image shows a figure wearing a Number 9 shirt, with blond hair and arms raised – Fernando Torres in front of the Liverpool badge. Smiling, Michael Robinson displays his mobile phone. He has been a fan of The Reds for as long as he can remember. ‘I was born in Leicester but a few years later my parents, for business reasons, moved to Blackpool, about 30 minutes from Anfield. Right from when I was a small boy I never missed a match in the Kop. I dreamed one day of being one of those players in the red shirt.’ A dream that became reality in 1983, when Liverpool paid £250,000 to Brighton and Hove Albion for the striker who had so impressed at Wembley in the FA Cup Final against Manchester United.

Robinson spent just one season (1983–84) with the Reds, mostly as a reserve striker, trying to create a space for himself in-between Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush. But for him and the club it was a glorious year, winning the old First Division title, the FA Cup and the European Cup. In December 1994, he left for Queen’s Park Rangers, spending two seasons there before moving to Spain, playing for Osasuna (in Pamplona).

‘I arrived the day of Reyes (the day in Spain for giving Christmas presents), 6 January 1987, so now I’ve been living here for 22 years!’ That’s right, because after retiring from football in 1989, ‘The Cat’ – as he was called by his friend, the Liverpool captain, Graeme Souness – has transformed himself into one of the best-known faces and voices on Spanish television and radio. ‘I am’, he says, ‘the only English footballer on Spanish TV. I’m still alone on the podium.’ He has commentated on both rugby and football matches, taken part in countless panel discussions, all in his unmistakable English accent, dubbed the voice of the ugly sister in the Shrek 2 & 3 films and had the honour of being represented in the Spanish equivalent of Spitting Image on the Canal+ television channel, with his puppet figure taking the role of programme presenter, no less. On Canal+ as always, he now presents Informe Robinson (Robinson Report), a series looking at all aspects of the world of sport. To talk with him and listen to his everlasting stories is a pleasure. He knows Liverpool very well, a city and club close to his heart, as well as Fernando Torres, who was the subject of one of his programmes.

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