Paul William Robinson (born 15 October 1979) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in the Premier League and Football League for Leeds United, Tottenham Hotspur, Blackburn Rovers and Burnley. Robinson is a former England international, earning 41 caps between 2003 and 2007.
Robinson joined Leeds United at age 16, becoming professional aged 18, and made 119 appearances for the club, 95 of which were in league matches, and scored a goal in a League Cup tie. He also was voted Leeds United's Player of the Year in 2003 by the supporter's club. In 2004, following Leeds' relegation from the Premier League to the Championship, he moved to Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. He played in 175 matches for Tottenham, including 137 Premier League matches, and scored another goal (this time in a Premier League match, whilst he also won the 2008 League Cup with the club). He was signed by Blackburn Rovers in 2008, being voted the Blackburn Rovers Player of the Year in 2011 by the supporters' club.
Robinson made his full international debut in a 3–1 friendly defeat against Australia on 12 February 2003. His competitive international debut came a year later in a 2–1 victory over Poland, during a qualification match for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Twenty-five of his forty-one appearances came in competitive internationals, with his last cap coming in a 2–1 defeat to Russia on 17 October 2007. He retired from international football on 8 August 2010. In February 2014 Robinson reversed his decision to retire and said that he would be open to an international return for the 2014 FIFA World Cup if England manager Roy Hodgson decided to recall him.
Born in Beverley, East Yorkshire, Robinson played local Sunday league football in the Hull Boys Sunday League. He played in the York City youth system before coming through the youth ranks at Leeds United after joining following a trial. He won the FA Youth Cup with Leeds during the 1996–97 season, and kept a clean sheet on his senior debut, a 0–0 draw against Chelsea on 25 October 1998.
Robinson's appearances at Leeds were at first sporadic, although he did play in a UEFA Champions League match against Barcelona, which finished 1–1. He was Leeds' number two goalkeeper behind Nigel Martyn, making five league appearances in his debut season and none in the following season. He made 16 appearances in the 2000–01 season, following Martyn sustaining an injury, but did not play a league match in the following season. Terry Venables dropped Martyn after he requested a break from pre-season training after the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Robinson became Leeds' number one goalkeeper as a result, with Robinson playing in all 38 matches of the 2002–03 season. Martyn left for Everton at the start of the following season, with young goalkeepers Danny Milosevic and Scott Carson taking over as backups for Robinson.
During the 2003–04 season, Robinson scored his first professional goal, a header against Swindon Town in the closing moments of a League Cup match. The goal levelled the scores and forced extra time; with no further goals scored during extra time, the match then went to a penalty shoot-out. Robinson saved a penalty, whilst a Swindon player missed another one by hitting the post, resulting in Leeds winning the match. Leeds were subsequently relegated from the Premier League that season, with Robinson conceding 75 goals in 36 matches, being sent off in one match. He made 119 appearances in total for Leeds, 95 in the Premier League, during his seven-year spell at the club, and was also voted Player of the Year by the Leeds United supporters' club in 2003.
Robinson transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in May 2004, for a fee of £1.5 million; the club had initially attempted to sign him for £2.5 million in January, with the intention of Robinson staying at Leeds until the end of the season, only for this to fail as it violated the Premier League's rules. He made his league debut for Tottenham in a 1–1 draw against Liverpool, going on to make 36 league appearances in total during the 2004–05 season. The following two seasons saw Robinson play in all 76 of the club's league matches; the latter season was notable for Robinson scoring the second goal of his professional career, in a Premier League match against Watford at White Hart Lane on 17 March 2007. He took a free-kick from 95 yd (87 m) from the opposition goal and the ball bounced over the head of Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster and into the goal. He became the third goalkeeper of six in Premier League history (excluding own goals) to score after Peter Schmeichel for Aston Villa in 2001, Brad Friedel for Blackburn Rovers in 2004, then followed by Tim Howard for Everton in 2012, Asmir Begović for Stoke City in 2013 and Alisson Becker for Liverpool in 2021. Robinson captained the team in their 1–0 League Cup quarter-final win over Southend United, and in their 0–0 FA Cup third round draw at Cardiff City as Ledley King and Robbie Keane were both injured.
The 2007–08 season proved to be less successful. An error during international duty was an example of how his form had dipped, and he was replaced by Radek Černý for part of the season, initially after Robinson made an error against Reading in the FA Cup. Although he briefly returned to the team, he made another error in the League Cup final. Despite his error, Tottenham were able to beat Chelsea 2–1, with Robinson collecting the first major trophy of his career. He made 25 appearances in the league for Tottenham during this season, and made 175 appearances in total during his time at the club, 137 in the Premier League.
Robinson joined Blackburn Rovers on 25 July 2008 for a fee of £3.5 million on a five-year deal, making him Paul Ince's first signing at the club. He made his Premier League debut for Blackburn on 16 August, in a 3–2 victory over Everton. He was named man of the match in a 1–0 win against Wigan Athletic. Robinson helped Blackburn to finish 15th in the league, keeping five clean sheets in his 35 Premier League appearances. On 2 December 2009, in a League Cup match against Chelsea, Robinson saved two penalties during the penalty shoot-out, with Blackburn winning 4–3 on penalties as extra time ended with the score at 3–3. Robinson ended the season with a total of 12 Premier League clean sheets, as Blackburn finished tenth in the league.
Although Arsenal were rumoured to be signing Robinson at the beginning of the 2010–11 season, no move materialized. Robinson was in goal during Blackburn's 7–1 defeat away to Manchester United on 27 November, with five of the goals being scored by Dimitar Berbatov. Despite this result, Blackburn reached as high as seventh position in the league in January, following a 2–0 victory over West Bromwich Albion. This resulted in Robinson being yet again linked with a move away from Blackburn, with Aston Villa, Liverpool and former club Tottenham all rumoured to be interested in signing him. Following the win over West Brom, however, Blackburn's form dipped sharply, with the club eventually finishing in 15th, having won just 2 out of its last 14 matches. Robinson kept 8 clean sheets in the 36 league matches he played in, while he also conceded the 500th league goal of his career towards the end of the season, becoming the fifth goalkeeper in Premier League history to do so. He also was voted the 2011 Player of the Year by the Blackburn Rovers' supporters club.
The 2011–12 season started much as the previous one had ended, with Blackburn taking until 17 September to win a match, a 4–3 victory at home to Arsenal. On 20 November, Robinson won a penalty against Wigan; the goalkeeper had gone up to the Wigan box for a late corner, and was kicked in the face by Wigan midfielder David Jones. The penalty was scored by Yakubu to level the score at 3–3. In a repeat of the previous season, Robinson conceded seven goals as Blackburn lost an away match 7–1, this time to Arsenal, on 4 February 2012. A run of 30 matches without a clean sheet was finally ended in a 2–0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers, a match which also took Blackburn out of the relegation zone, whilst another 2–0 win, this time against Sunderland, was the first time Robinson had kept back-to-back clean sheets since August 2010. Blackburn, however, would only score three points more all season and were relegated to the Championship after finishing in 19th position. In contrast to the two previous seasons where Robinson had averaged ten league clean sheets a season, he kept just three clean sheets in the league, having played 34 matches. All three clean sheets came from matches where Blackburn won 2–0. Following the departures of Christopher Samba and Ryan Nelsen from Ewood Park, Robinson became the Blackburn captain, initially on a temporary basis but later as the permanent captain.