Jack Robinson (Derby County, Sothampton)

In the history of world football, we approached the 1900s. The British are the first to play football in their own country and the world. As can be understood from the history and stories, they did not only make it play first but later had many effects. When we talk about organizations in the late 1800s, we also talk about the prominent goalkeepers of that period. Next up is Jack Robinson.

He was born in Derby, one of the cities that can be considered the cradle of football, in 1870. He first played for the short-lived Derby St Neots and Derby Midland clubs. In 1888 he transferred to Lincoln City, which was founded in 1884. After playing with his club in the Midland Football League, he returned to his hometown and famous Derby County in 1891. He spent six seasons here and then at the newly established New Brighton Tower in 1896 and transferred to Southampton, where he would become a legend and spent five seasons in the Southern League. He was a goalkeeper with experiences such as Southern League clubs Plymouth Argyle, Exeter City, Millwall, and Stoke until he was 42. An essential performance for those times, considering that many people could not reach 42.

The Corinthians goalkeepers William Robert Moon and Jack Robinson, whom I mentioned earlier, were goalkeepers who impressed European goalkeepers with their techniques. Robinson had toured Central Europe with Southampton. While they beat the city mix 6-0 in Vienna, Hugo Meisl, who will be the coach of the Austrian national team of the future “Wunderteam,” was also there. Talking about that match in 1899 when he was a national team coach in the 1930s, Meisl said, “We saw for the first time with Robinson that saves were made by flying balls that were close to the ground but from the air. “To this day, that way of saving has been called Robinsonade.”

Robinson, who also played baseball in the National League with Derby Baseball Club for a while, defended the England national team goal 11 times, especially during the Southampton period.