Paul Robinson - Tottenham and England

Paul William Robinson (born October 15, 1979 in Beverley) is 6ft 3in's and plays for Tottenham Hotspur and England.

Robinson started his career at Leeds United, and kept a clean sheet in his début against Chelsea in 1998. He made 119 appearances for the club before transferring to Tottenham Hotspur in May 2004 for a fee of £1,500,000. A Tottenham first team regular, he is also an England international and was part of the Euro 2004 squad. He is currently England's first choice goalkeeper.

In 2005-06, Robinson signed a seven year contract extension after turning down offers from Manchester United. The contract will keep him at the club until 2012.

During his time at Leeds, Robinson scored a crucial goal against Swindon Town in the 2003-04 season, at the end of a dramatic League Cup game, forcing extra time. The game went to penalties, two of which were saved by Robinson to help his team to victory. The goal was voted one of the 100 greatest ever Leeds United goals. It was not plain sailing for Robinson, however, as he was criticised by his former coach O'Leary for "putting too many goodies in his mouth" - a plain reference to his weight. Since joining Spurs, Robinson has improved his physique considerably.

On May 8, 2006 Robinson was named in England's 2006 World Cup squad for the finals in Germany. As of July 1, 2006, he had been capped for England 26 times. He was an ever present in England's campaign, and kept clean sheets in four out of five games that he played. He conceded no goals to Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago during the group stage. After the opening World Cup game against Paraguay, when his counterpart Justo Villar was injured 7 minutes into the match, ending his tournament early, Robinson sent Villar his gloves as a gesture of good will after England won 1-0. During the knock-out rounds, he kept out Ecuador and Portugal, although the latter prevailed 3-1 in the penalty shoot-out to end England's campaign. Robinson managed to save one penalty from Petit and Hugo Viana missed.

On 11 October 2006, Robinson was involved in an embarrassing moment during a Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia when an unfortunate bounce caused him to miss his kick, resulting in Gary Neville scoring an own goal to put Croatia 2-0 up. Robinson later defined the incident as a freak. Despite this, he was later named Man of the Match by England fans, which suggests that they agreed with him.

Robinson is third in line for the role of captaincy at Spurs, after Robbie Keane and club captain Ledley King. He captained the team in their 1-0 Carling Cup quarter-final win over Southend, as King and Keane were both injured.