IT’S rare that an English football figure garners widespread acclaim and respect beyond the British Isles, but this something the late Sir Bobby Robson was able to do thanks to his time working as a manager across Europe.

Robson managed more clubs outside of England than he did in it, and even in his first successful and most prolonged stint as a manager of one club, Ipswich Town, he tasted success in Europe winning the Uefa Cup in 1981.

His success in Suffolk earned him the England manager’s job in 1982, a role he held until after the 1990 World Cup making him the third longest-serving England manager in history.