If Michael Robinson had only been a footballer, he would deserve laudatory obituaries today. If Michael Robinson had only been a commentator, he would deserve laudatory obituaries today. If Michael Robinson had only been a great guy, he would deserve (even more) laudatory obituaries today. Since Michael Robinson was all three, nothing we write will do him justice, although we owe it anyway. Spanish football of the last 30 years would be another without Robin. A worse one. Sometimes, the phrases made are not used to get out of trouble without thinking too much, but because they really explain reality better than any other: this is one of those occasions.

Robinson was a striker who did not score many goals and a commentator who did not know many words. With those tools, he was the European champion with Liverpool and one of the indispensable voices on our television for three decades. If they give you better cards, conquer the world. Or not. Because surely he would have preferred to stay at the bar with his friends, drinking a pint, talking about rugby and laughing. Laughing non-stop. Humor, under suspicion in this permanently angry society, was always the emblem of a man who faced cancer as well as life: with a half smile and without drama.

That was the footballer who, in 1987, came to Spain looking for Osasuna on the map and did not find the city, but found a new home. He never left. It will never go away. Although he had a previous flirtation with TVE, his transformation into the guiri friend of an entire country was caused by the innate smell for the talent of Alfredo Relaño , who on that first Channel + brought out a Dream Team out of nowhere that changed our sports TV: Robinson , his inseparable Carlos Martínez , Maldini , Montes , Daimiel ...

The bet was immediately won because Michael always transcended the anecdote. The jokes with pronunciation, like all schoolyard jokes, expire quickly and what kept him on the air for so many years was what he said, not how he said it. Unlike what is fashionable today, he was always a commentator, never a showman . Between British irony and self-parody, the knowledge of someone who never allowed the laziness of fame to take away his professionalism appeared without exhibitionism. He knew football, he knew how to transmit it and he knew that getting comfortable is the end.

In fact, when he saw that the social gathering of a bar was beginning to invade sports programs, he gave a defining blow: instead of sitting down in a chair doing pranks and debating fictitious polemics, the Robinson Report was invented . He traded quantity for quality and we won everything. In the style of Relaño, he knew how to form a magnificent team of journalists and act as a figurehead for a fantastic program that, like him, does not expire.

As a tribute, tonight I will dust off the PC Fútbol and will continue to have fun as a child every time his rag tongue adds a goal with a "not all the goalkeeper's family would have stopped this" and a shot to the clouds with "I will not I don't go that far nor on vacation. " Today it may seem that Michael Robinson has really gone far, but it is a lie. If you look a little in your head, it's still there. He, with a half smile. You, with a whole smile when remembering him.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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