FC Porto celebrate their 125th anniversary in September, just ten months after the Tyneside club celebrated the same milestone.
Thousands of the Toon Army had made their way from the UK to join the sell-out crowd of 45,000 as the Primeira Liga champions were held to a 0-0 draw thanks to the brilliance of the Magpies keeper Martin Dubravka.
Sir Bobby took charge at Porto twenty-five years ago and won two Portuguese titles, the Portuguese Cup and the Super Cup during his three-year tenure before moving on to Barcelona. Robson was not only revered in Porto because he won trophies, but it was his football philosophy that won the hearts and minds of the public.
He once said: “If we score a goal it’s fine, it’s great, but let’s try for another. And if we get another, excellent, but the game continues and we will look for yet another goal. We have to keep attacking and attacking, to get as many goals as we can.”
Just as Sir Bobby had transformed Porto he did likewise on Tyneside after rescuing Newcastle, who were bottom of the Premier League in 1999, and turning them into a Champions League outfit. His first game at St James’ Park will never be forgotten when Sheffield Wednesday were thrashed 8-0 and Alan Shearer, who had been on a bad run, grabbed five goals. Shearer recalls: “If it wasn’t for Sir Bobby I would have left the football club. That was the reality of the situation. He saved my career. I didn’t know where to go, what to do, what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. He had an aura about him. He had a personality that was lovable, that was engaging and open.”
Shearer’s revelation comes in a new film about Sir Bobby.
Called ‘Bobby Robson: More Than A Manager’, it charts the life and career of one of English football’s most revered characters.
The same weekend as the Porto-Newcastle game was taking place in the north, the Sir Bobby Robson Celebrity Golf Classic was in full swing at the Championship Course at Pestana Vila Sol, Vilamoura where Alan Shearer, Harry Redknapp, Steve Bruce and Mick McCarthy led a star-studded field.
The annual fundraising event has raised over one million euros for the homeless children’s charity the Refugio Aboim Ascensão, Faro since its inception fourteen years ago.
Lady Elsie Robson and her family have continued their unwavering support for the charity following Sir Bobby’s untimely death in 2009. Two years ago a wonderful statue of Sir Bobby was commissioned and placed in a beautiful position, sitting on a bench overlooking the 18th green, a favourite spot of Sir Bobby’s at Pestana Vila Sol.