Bryan Robson - International Playing Career

International Playing Career

In the summer of 1975 Robson was called up to the England youth team for the "mini World Cup". He played as a centre-half during the tournament, which England won, beating Finland 1–0 in the final. He was selected for the England Under-21s for the first time in March 1977, but was withdrawn from the squad by his club West Bromwich Albion, who needed him for a league match against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Albion drew 2–2, with Robson scoring one of the goals. On 6 February 1979 he finally made his England under-21 debut, albeit as an overage player (he was 22 at the time) as England beat Wales Under-21s 1–0 at Swansea's Vetch Field. He made his England B debut on 12 June 1979, and scored after just five minutes to give England a 1–0 lead against Austria B in Klagenfurt, although the match was abandoned after 60 minutes. He appeared three times for England B in all, captaining the side on his third and final appearance as England drew 0–0 with Algeria's A team in Algiers on 11 December 1990.

On 6 February 1980 Robson made his full international debut, and his first appearance at Wembley, as England beat the Republic of Ireland 2–0 in a qualifier for that summer's European Championships. His second cap came in the final preparation game for the finals—a 2–1 win over Australia in Sydney—but he didn't feature in the tournament itself, from which England were eliminated in the first round. On 9 September 1981 he marked his 13th cap by scoring his first goal for England, in a 2–1 defeat to Norway in Oslo. The match is remembered mainly for Norwegian commentator Bjørge Lillelien's taunting of England following the final whistle.

England coach Ron Greenwood started to feature Robson regularly in his midfield, selecting him for the first dozen internationals after the European Championships finished, including all eight of the qualifying games for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, through which England earned a place in the finals. Robson was in the record books for 20 years thanks to a goal scored against France in England's opening game of the 1982 World Cup. It came after just 27 seconds of the match – the second-fastest in World Cup finals history until 2002 when Hakan Şükür scored after ten seconds in the third-place match against South Korea. For Robson's achievement, he received an inscribed gold watch, which he still occasionally wears.

Robson captained England for the first time on 17 November 1982, leading the side to a 3–0 win over Greece in Salonika. He scored a hat-trick in England's 8–0 victory over Turkey in Istanbul on 14 November 1984. Captain Marvel, as he was nicknamed, helped England qualify for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. By now he was considered by England manager Bobby Robson to be the best player in England. However his hopes of glory were crushed by re-aggravating an existing shoulder injury in England's second game of the group stages, against Morocco, which prevented him participating further in the tournament: ironically, the enforced change to England's formation benefited them, no longer having to protect an injured player, and – despite also losing vice-captain Ray Wilkins to a red card and subsequent ban – successive 3–0 victories resulted, until England's run finally came to an end with a 2–1 defeat against Argentina in the quarter final. The same shoulder injury was to trouble him for several weeks after the competition.

Over the next two years, Robson returned to the side to lead them through qualifying for the 1988 European Championship. He played personally well for England, particularly with a fine individual goal against eventual champions the Netherlands, but was unable to prevent them from going out in the first phase of the competition as England lost all three of their group games.

Robson continued his international career until 1991, also helping England to reach the 1990 World Cup. For the second World Cup in succession, though, his role was limited as he once again suffered an injury in the second match (against the Netherlands) that was to keep him out of the rest of the tournament. Even more ironically, for the second World Cup in succession, England's revamped formation played better without their captain, whose place in the team was taken by David Platt during the knock-out stages as England came fourth.

Robson claimed in his autobiography that in one of his last matches for England under Graham Taylor, he was played bizarrely on the left wing, even though he had never played there for club and no longer had the pace to get up and down the line at the age of 34.

Robson was picked by both Bobby Robson and Tony Adams in their England dream teams, in their respective autobiographies of all the best players they had worked or played with. Adams claimed additionally that Robson had a "Terrific football brain" and had exceptional awareness and anticipation; often intercepting or knowing where the ball would land ahead of other players. Adams claimed this separated outstanding players from good players, and Robson would fit into the category of "The best". Paul Gascoigne stated in his 2004 book Gazza: My Story that Robson was the best footballer her ever shared a pitch with and the best player of his generation. Additionally Peter Beardsley named him in his "Perfect XI" selection, football magazine Four Four Two's interviews with current and former players of their "Dream team" selections.