Rob Lee

Rob Lee
Personnel
Surname	Robert Martin Lee
birthday	1st February 1966
place of birth	West Ham , London ,  England
position	midfield
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1983-1992	Charlton Athletic	298 (59)
1992-2002	Newcastle United	303 (44)
2002-2003	Derby County	48 0(2)
2003-2004	West Ham United	16 0(0)
2004	Oldham Athletic	0 0(0)
2005-2006	Wycombe Wanderers	38 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1986	England U-21	2 0(0)
1994	England B	1 0(0)
1994-1998	England	21 0(2)
1 Only league games are given.

Robert "Rob" Martin Lee (born February 1, 1966 in West Ham , London ) is a former English soccer player and was active for many years for the clubs Charlton Athletic and Newcastle United . The 21-time England international was also part of the team that took part in the 1998 World Cup in France .

Athletic career

Club career

Lee went through the youth academy of the club Charlton Athletic and established himself for the 1984/85 season in the first team. He quickly developed into an important midfielder there , although the team had to relegate to the Second Division at the end of the 1989/90 season . Lee then stayed with his club to get promoted.

Charlton continued to play in 1992 in the second division, now renamed First Division . Due to the club's tight financial situation, coach Alan Curbishley was pressured to sell Lee to Newcastle United for £ 700,000. Newcastle, although also second class, was under Sir John Hall in an economically much better position than Charlton and ensured promotion to the Premier League in the 1992/93 season with Lee's help .

Under coach Kevin Keegan and his assistant Terry McDermott , the club played several times for the English championship after returning to the top class. Lee was an important part of the team between 1993 and 1996 that competed for the top positions with teams such as Manchester United in particular at the time.

After Keegan's resignation in January 1997, Kenny Dalglish followed shortly thereafter . Dalglish was unable to play with Newcastle United again in the top regions of the table and placed the team several times only in the midfield of the league. Lee personally developed into a leading player and took on the role of team captain. Shortly thereafter, however, Dalglish was dismissed and was succeeded by Ruud Gullit .

Lee fell out with Gullit in Newcastle, which resulted in the loss of the captaincy and his traditional shirt number 7. In addition, Lee was removed from the squad and was no longer allowed to train with the team. When Gullit was replaced by Sir Bobby Robson , Lee was able to return to the team, as was his colleague Alan Shearer , who was also no longer favored by Gullit.

Lee was given back number 7, which Gullit had withheld from him and given to Kieron Dyer , after intense requests. He then interpreted his midfield role under Robson more defensively than before and thus gave the creative midfielders freedom for the offensive. By the mid-1990s , Lee himself had mostly acted in this role as an offensive player.

During the 2001/02 season, Lee expressed his intention to extend the contract in Newcastle. However, the club insisted on starting negotiations in January 2002. Since Lee was not happy with this strategy, he asked for clearance to change clubs. Both Robson and Newcastle supporters were surprised by the development, but respected Lee's decision. In February 2002, Lee then moved to Derby County for £ 250,000 .

The stay there was to be short-lived, however, and Lee was sold to West Ham United , the club in Lee's homeland, for which he was enthusiastic as a child. Even for the Hammers Lee completed only a few games in the 2003/04 season. He then moved to Oldham Athletic on a free transfer and later to the Wycombe Wanderers , who were active until June 2006.

English national team

On October 12, 1994 Lee made his debut at the relatively old age of 28 for the English national team under Terry Venables in the game against Romania . After six more international matches, Lee then also hoped to participate in the 1996 European Championship in his own country. However, since Venables put a greater focus on creative elements in midfield, Lee was not called into the final squad as a shooting, strong running and more physically oriented player.

In the national team Lee came under Glenn Hoddle regularly, but mostly only as a substitute, and was then nominated for the 1998 World Cup. After three appearances in the last preparatory games, however, he only came on once in the tournament itself when he came on for Darren Anderton after 79 minutes in the 2-0 win against Colombia . After three more appearances in qualifying for the EM 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium , including two substitutions, the replacement of Hoddles as English coach meant the end of Lee in the national team after 21 games and two goals.

Title / Awards

• Tournoi de France (1): 1997
• PFA Team of the Year (1): 1995/96
• England's Footballer of the Month (1): September 1994, November 1995

Web links

• Rob Lee in the soccerbase.com database
• Rob Lee as England international

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Robert LEE - ENGLAND - England football biography 1994 - 1998" (Sporting Heroes)