Famous Players – The 1980’s

Robbie Earle MBE

Iconic player of the 80’s

Robbie Earle was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1965 and was originally a junior player at local rivals Stoke City before moving to the Vale, where he turned professional in 1982.

A key member of John Rudge’s team that won promotion in 1989, Robbie scored the decisive goal that defeated Bristol Rovers in the second leg of the play off final, taking the Valiants back to the second tier for the first time in over 30 years.

In 1991 he was transferred to Wimbledon for a fee of £775,000. Robbie was then chosen to represent Jamaica at international level and went on to score Jamaica’s first ever goal in the World Cup finals in France in 1998.

He was awarded an MBE in 1999 for services to football including the campaign against racism “Show racism the red card”. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Stoke-on-Trent Sporting Hall of Fame in 2018. In 2019 he was voted into the “Ultimate Port Vale XI” by the One Vale Fan supporters forum.

He currently lives in California and covers the Premier League for the NBC Sports Channel.