Real Heroes of Football, Sir Bobby Robson, a Tribute to a Brave English Knight.

Amidst a game of little moral fibre and financial thuggery, it is easy to forget that the beautiful game has presented us with some real heroes, people that instantly command respect and are true role models to young aspiring footballers across the globe.

Sir Bobby Robson was born in Sacriston, County Durham in 1933. His father was a miner in the Langley Park coillery and Bobby followed his father into the pit trade aged 15.

Bobby grew up during the war years a tough upbringing but a happy one, which helped shape the man we see today.

After the war he regularly made the pilgrimage to St James Park to watch his beloved Newcastle United watching players like Jackie Milburn and Albert Stubbins grace the turf of the famous old ground. From an early age his only ambition was to become a footballer and his wish came true aged 17, when Fulham manager Bill Dodgin visited his house and offered the lucrative contract of £7 during the seaon and £6 in the summer.

He spent six years at Fulham rising through the ranks to gain a reputation as a fine goalscorer. At one point Newcastle made the biggest transfer the game had ever seen offering £60,000 for Jonny Haynes, Bobby Robson and Bedford Jezzard, seems even in those days money burned a hole in the clubs pocket. Bobby would have loved to return to his hometown club but the Fulham board were not to grant him his wish and he eventualy left to join West Brom in 1956.

Robson was a strong, robust attacking midfielder with an eye for goal and was rewarded with 20 international caps for England, scoring 2 goals on his debut against France at Wembley. He spent 6 years at Albion before returning to Fulham for the final 5 years of his playing career.

Sir Bobby never won a trophy in all his playing days, he was however about to more than make up for that statistic during his long and fruitful managerial career.

A turbulent 2 tears spent as manager of Fulham was followed by 14 seasons at Ipswich, during which he led the unfancied Suffolk club to F.A cup glory and even more remarkable, Uefa cup triumph. Those exploits at Ipswich meant England came calling, and he twice came, oh,so very close to claiming the world cup, in 1986 at Mexico and in 1990 in Italy.

Diego Maradona literaly punched England out of the competition at the quarter-final stage, and an agonising semi-final penalty shootout against Germany was to thwart his efforts 4 years later in Italia 90.

Dutch club PSV were anither club to benefit from Robsons excellent coaching ability and management skills, he went on to win consecutive league titles before moving onto Portugal to manage, firstly Sporting Lisbon before moving onto F.C Porto where he won 2 league titles and a Portugese cup.

Europes glamour club F.C Barcelona were the next club to come calling for his services and the prospect of managing the Catalan giants must have been a daunting task to a modest Englishman. A man who has fought numerous battles with cancer and who saved his wife from drowning on their honeymoon is not someone who would shirk such a challenge however and he went on to lead them to 2nd place in the league and the Spanish cup. During his years in Portugal and Spain he took under his wing a young ambitious coach called Jose Mourinho, who personaly credits much of his coaching ability to learning from Robson during their time together.

In 1999 after a brief spell back at PSV, the job that seemed his destiny finaly came his way when Ruud Gullit was sacked by Newcastle United and Robson returned to his roots to steer the club from 2nd bottom of the premier league, to the Champions League and the San Siro and Stadio Del Alpi. In his first home game a rejuvinated Alan Shearer bagged 5 goals in a 8-1 romp over Sheffield Wednesday.

During his time at Newcastle Robson was to realise that the game he helped shape had become a uncontrollable monster, he had a hard time trying to relate to the modern player, more concerned about his diamond earings than the pre-match warm up.

Ego's and richness are the biggest problems football faces today something Sir Bobby never had a problem dealing with in his 55 years involved with the game. He was scandalously sacked by Freddy Shepherd after 4 games of the 2004-2005 season and the club he loved so much has never recovered since.

If ever there was a real life, living hero, Sir Bobby Robson must surely be one, A modest, polite, caring gentleman, he is someone everyone across the globe can look up to and draw inspiration from. I have just read his autobiography and it inspired me to write this piece, I believe every young footballer should be made to read it as part of his education and development.

Heres to you Sir Bobby as you fight your latest battle, you are my hero and if football had more people like you, the game would be in a far healthier state than the one we see now.