Carl Robinson

Infobox Football biography
playername = Carl Robinson


fullname =
height = height|ft=5|in=10
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1976|10|13
cityofbirth = Llandrindod Wells
countryofbirth = Wales
currentclub = Toronto FC
clubnumber = 33
position = Midfielder
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1995–2002
1996
2002–2004
2003
2003
2003
2004
2004
2004–2006
2005–2006
2006–2007
2007–
clubs = Wolves
→ Shrewsbury Town (loan)
Portsmouth
→ Sheffield Wednesday (loan)
→ Walsall (loan)
→ Rotherham United (loan)
→ Sheffield United (loan)
→ Sunderland (loan)
Sunderland
→ Norwich City (loan)
Norwich City
Toronto FC
caps(goals) = 165 (19)
004 0(0)
016 0(0)
004 0(1)
011 0(1)
014 0(0)
005 0(0)
007 0(1)
045 0(4)
007 0(0)
042 0(2)
051 0(3)
nationalyears = 1999–
nationalteam = Wales
nationalcaps(goals) = 049 0(1)
pcupdate = 5 October 2008
ntupdate = 10 September 2008

Carl Robinson Jr. (born 13 October 1976 in Llandrindod Wells) is a Welsh international football midfielder, currently with Major League Soccer side Toronto FC after being released by Norwich City on 31 January2007.

Club career

A combative player, he started his career as a trainee with Wolverhampton Wanderers, making his debut during the 1996-97 season. After over 180 appearances for Wolves over six seasons, he moved to Portsmouth in July 2002. He failed to establish himself at Portsmouth, and had loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday, Walsall, Rotherham, Sheffield United and Sunderland. After impressing at the latter, he signed a permanent deal with Sunderland in June 2004.

After a loan spell with Norwich City, he signed for "The Canaries" permanently for £50,000 on a 2½-year deal in January 2006. It was the first time in his career that a transfer fee had been paid for his services. Robinson scored his first goal for Norwich in the 5-1 win against Barnsley on 26 August2006. On January 31 2007, Robinson joined Toronto FC from Norwich after just over a year at Carrow Road. He scored his first MLS goal when he netted Toronto's 3rd goal in a 4-0 win against FC Dallas on June 17 2007.

Robinson has since announced that he plans to spend the remainder of his club career in MLS. Although he took a substantial pay cut when moving across the Atlantic, the considerably lower property prices of Canada as opposed to those of the United Kingdom allowed him to purchase a country estate near Toronto. He also remarked, [cite web|url=http://sports.yahoo.com/mls/news;_ylt=AhBJN8Q8.giHDKUafs3WgZYmw7YF?slug=ro-imports081407&prov=yhoo&type=lgns |title=The North American dream |first=Martin |last=Rogers |publisher=Yahoo! Sports |date=2007-08-14 |accessdate=2007-08-15]

International career

A Wales international player, Robinson made his debut against Belarus in 1999 and has earned 50 caps and scored 1 goal.

Personal

He married Laura in the summer of 2003 and has a daughter. His brother, Lee, was formerly the Academy Manager at Cardiff City. Robinson is also a fan of Cardiff City. His cousin Andy Robinson is also a midfielder, for Leeds United. Carl currently writes a sports column for the weekly newspaper the County Times, which is sold in his home county of Powys, Wales.

ee also

* List of current MLS players

Notes and references

External links

*soccerbase|id=9094|name=Carl Robinson
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/halloffame/sport/carl_robinson.shtml Biography] at BBC Mid-Wales