GEORGE ROBLEDO ENGLISH FOOTBALL'S FIRST OVERSEAS STAR

A whole host of foreign players arrived in the Premier League this summer - all of them are following in the footsteps of a Chilean who found the net with regularity for Newcastle more than 70 years ago

- Words Spencer Vignes

With each Premier League season that has come and gone, a fiendishly difficult quiz question has survived for yet another campaign. Throughout the entire history of England’s top flight, who holds the record for the most goals scored in a season by a foreign-born, overseas-registered player?

It's not Erling Haaland - despite his 36 goals in 2022-23, the Norwegian was born in Leeds, where father Alf-Inge was plying his trade at the turn of the century. It’s not Mo Salah either, despite his 32 goals in 2017-18. Nor is it Luis Suarez or Cristiano Ronaldo, who each struck 31 in a campaign - the latter en route to the Ballon d’Or in 2008. Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie both hit 30.

Back in January 2023, I found myself taking part in a quiz where this very question came up. No-one knew the answer. After five minutes’ worth of shot-in-the-dark guessing, with the suggested answers becoming ever more ludicrous (Ricky Villa? Or how about Ryan Giggs?), somebody came up with the name out of the blue - George Robledo. Immediately, it all came flooding back. Robledo! Yes!

Two decades previously, I'd covered a Newcastle United game at St James’ Park during the managerial reign of Bobby Robson. The post-match press conference had ended, but Robson kept talking to some of us journalists not on a deadline about his boyhood heroes, the ones he'd watched play for the club shortly after the Second World War. He mentioned Jackie Milburn, I knew about him. I’d heard of Joe Harvey as well, but then he mentioned Robledo, a name that meant zilch to me. Clocking some blank expressions in our midst, Robson gave us Robledo in a nutshell.

As a boy he'd come to Yorkshire from Chile, worked as a miner, then become a professional footballer and scored lots of goals. Robson explained that he saw plenty of Robledo in Alan Shearer, which gave us some indication of how highly he rated the player he saw in his youth.