Robbie Mustoe
Personal information
Date of birth (1968-08-28) 28 August 1968 (age 55)
Place of birth Witney, England
Position(s) Defensive Midfielder
Youth career
1984–1986 Oxford United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1986–1990 Oxford United 91 (10)
1990–2002 Middlesbrough 365 (25)
2002–2003 Charlton Athletic 6 (0)
2003–2004 Sheffield Wednesday 25 (1)
Total 478 (36)
Managerial career
2006 Bentley Falcons (assistant)
2007 Boston College Eagles (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Robin "Robbie" Mustoe (born 28 August 1968) is an English former professional footballer who now works as a commentator for NBC Sports.

He made nearly 500 appearances in the Football League and Premier League playing primarily as a defensive midfielder for Oxford United and Middlesbrough, but also making appearances for Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday.[1]

Playing career

Mustoe began his football career as a junior with Oxford United.[2] He made his Football League debut in the 1986–87 Football League First Division, and went on to play nearly 100 league games for the club.[3]

He joined Middlesbrough in 1990 for £375,000. When Bryan Robson took over as player-manager in 1994, Mustoe initially lost his place.[4] However, he worked his way back into the side, becoming a consistent member of the first team,[3] featured in all three of the club's Wembley finals,[5][6][7] and shared the club's 1999 Player of the Year award with Hamilton Ricard.[8]

When Steve McClaren took over as manager in 2001, Mustoe was 33 and not part of McLaren's future plans. However, he again worked his way back into the team and played a prominent part in the 2001–02 season.[9] He left the club in the summer of 2002, having made more than 450 appearances in all competitions.

He played a season at Charlton Athletic before ending his professional playing career in League One with Sheffield Wednesday.[10] At Wednesday he scored once, an injury-time winner against Brighton & Hove Albion.[11]

In his book Woody and Nord, Gareth Southgate describes Mustoe as "one of the most honest professionals in the game".[citation needed]

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Mustoe moved to Lexington, Massachusetts, in the United States where he coached college soccer.[12]

Media work

Mustoe moved to the US after retiring from playing where he worked as a commentator/analyst for ESPN television for five years.[13] He was invited into ESPN by former Boro commentator Dave Roberts.[14] where the two worked side by side in both the TV studio and conducting soccer commentaries. Mustoe also worked alongside Adrian Healey for ESPN's La Liga, UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Euro 2008, the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in which he partnered mostly with Derek Rae, and UEFA Euro 2012 coverage.[15][16] He also regularly appeared as a pundit on ESPN FC and made sporadic appearances for the network's Premier League coverage working in the studio.

In April 2013, he took a job for NBC as an analyst on their studio coverage of the English Premier League, as well as NBC's Match of the Day and Premier League Download programs.[17]

Honours

Middlesbrough[18]

References

  1. ^ "Robbie Mustoe". UK A–Z Transfers. Neil Brown. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  2. ^ "Alumni". Oxford United F.C. Archived from the original on 30 January 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  3. ^ a b "Robbie Mustoe Middlesbrough FC". Football Heroes. Sporting Heroes Collections. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  4. ^ Turnbull, Simon (6 December 1998). "Long-serving Mustoe the Boro boy made good". The Independent. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  5. ^ Moore, Glenn (7 April 1997). "Heskey levels at the last to deflate Juninho". The Independent. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  6. ^ Moore, Glenn (19 May 1997). "Chelsea cruelly expose Boro fault lines". The Independent. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  7. ^ Moore, Glenn (30 March 1998). "Vialli's selflessness primes Chelsea's deserved victory". The Independent. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  8. ^ "You're Fan-Tastic!". Middlesbrough FC. 14 May 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2009.[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "Robbie is still doing me proud". The Sunday Sun. 30 March 2002. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  10. ^ "Robbie Mustoe". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Archived from the original on 16 November 2004. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  11. ^ "Sheff Wed 2–1 Brighton". BBC. 27 March 2004. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
  12. ^ "Robbie Mustoe Profile". Boston College Official Athletic Site. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  13. ^ "ESPN and ESPN2 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup Television Commentators". Sports Media News. 11 June 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  14. ^ "Robbie Mustoe: 'I'm living the dream - it's not the worst way to earn a dollar'". TeessideLive. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  15. ^ "ESPN Inc. at UEFA EURO 2012". Sports Media News. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  16. ^ By (23 August 2009). "TELEVISION DEALS SHOULD RAISE LA LIGA'S PROFILE IN THE UNITED STATES". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  17. ^ "Robbie Earle and Robbie Mustoe Expected to Join NBC's EPL Coverage". EPL Talk. 28 March 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  18. ^ "Robbie Mustoe (July 1990 – June 2002)". MCFC. Retrieved 19 January 2021.

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