163: Robert Rosario, Norwich City, Pro Set English League 1990/91

Today Richard Allinson takes on a request post on behalf of the ever-friendly landlord at Twitter’s excellent Football Tavern. The pub’s many legions of regulars may well have seen today’s subject mentioned once or twice while at the bar although we are reliably informed that he just happens to pop into the landlord’s head rather than any questionable obsession brewing. We hope this does the great man justice. Over to Rich.

As we’ve mentioned a couple of times before, a lot of the admin for this blog is done via the Sticker 500 WhatsApp group. Essentially, it involves us forgetting who we’ve blogged about, posting the gif of Steven Gerrard letting it slip against Chelsea and discussing how Andy Carroll should really still be in the England squad. However, recently Mat broke it to us all that his years old green Nike Mercurials were done for and shared his replacements: a pair of red, blue and yellow Adidas astro trainers. They’re really snazzy, and have “Leooo!!!” written down the side, presumably in reference to convicted tax evader Lionel Messi. They also seem to have Rosario written on them, which led me to conclude that Mat’s new boots weren’t actually anything to do with the Argentine, and were in fact a Robert Rosario tribute. It’s obvious when you think about it: the red on the boots represent his time at Nottingham Forest; the blue is for his Coventry City days; and the yellow is a nice nod to the period when he turned out for Norwich City. It definitely doesn’t have anything at all to do with Barcelona’s colours. 

However, let’s suppose for one second that I am wrong and that Adidas haven’t launched a series of boots in tribute to a nineties striker that in Manny’s words was “… handsome, could pass for the bassist in Spandau Ballet or something” and that Robert Rosario needed a different type of tribute. Well, move over Mr Adidas, because here we go. 

Rosario started out his career at Harrow Borough before moving to Hillingdon Borough, where five goals in nine starts saw him secure a move to the big time with Norwich City at the age of 17 in 1983. During his spell with the Canaries he scored 29 goals in 161 games, or a goal every 5.5 games. However, he did once score an absolute belter against Southampton in the 1989/90 season when he twatted a volley into the top corner from thirty yards out. Striker! Clearly swayed by the “scorer of great goals, and not a great goal scorer” tag Terry Butcher decided to spend £600,000 on Rosario to replace Cyrille Regis at Coventry City. Things weren’t to improve on the goalscoring front for Bobby R, as during his time at Highfield Road he only managed a rather disappointing return of eight goals in 59 games, or one in every seven. 

Now personally I’m not a fan of the idea that it is okay for strikers to not score goals because they lay them on for others. My view might be swayed by the endlessly disappointing parade of lolloping carthorses that we have had at Grimsby Town over the years because although their attributes are described as “strong, good in the air, and able to bring others into the game” they are generally no good at any of these things as well being unable to shoot accurately. That said, team play is an important attribute and Rosario had probably his best spell as an attacking foil for Micky Quinn. Not so much the classic little and large partnership, but more a large and much larger combo. Despite his goal scoring record, Rosario was undoubtedly well regarded and he was a man in demand, as Nottingham Forest stumped up £450,000 in March 1993 making him Brian Clough’s last signing in the process. 

Rosario’s time in Nottingham can’t really be deemed successful. Overall, his spell at the City Ground saw him score three goals in 27 games, including one goal in 10 Premier League games as Forest got relegated at the end of the 1992/93 season. Rosario also suffered badly from injuries and was eventually released at the end of the 1995/96 season which resulted in him retiring from football at the age of 30. Following a move to the USA, he did come out of retirement with Carolina Dynamo after a year out of the game, scoring three goals in 24 matches. He then moved to Charleston Battery where he scored none in 22, before a final spell with Carolina where he scored one in eleven before retiring again. 

Overall he scored 34 goals in 271 games at an average of one goal every 7.97 matches. Perhaps on reflection this isn’t quite enough for Adidas to launch a range of boots in his honour, but that said, he is still a cult icon of nineties football and will forever remain the spearhead of the Norwich City Subbuteo team that I randomly owned.