Antonee Robinson, the Galacticos and me: ‘I was Puyol but Jedi has always been Jedi’

Antonee Robinson may be playing in the 2022 World Cup as a 25-year-old, but in 2010 he was a Galactico.

Weekly, Robinson would train alongside the likes of Lionel Messi, David Ginola, Zico, Rivaldo, Kenny Dalglish, Peter Schmeichel and many more.

Not the real ones, of course, they were nicknames given to players by Robinson’s dad, Tony, when they took part in their first session with the Galacticos.

How does The Athletic know? Because for around two years this writer occasionally trained with Robinson.

The Galacticos was private coaching for players hoping to take the next step in their young careers.

Read more: The USMNT beat Iran 1-0 to advance to the knockout stage thanks to Christian Pulisic’s goal

My nickname was (Carles) Puyol — although it was never confirmed if that was because I was a defender or for my looks.

Once you got a nickname, that was it. The only player who did not have a player’s nickname was Robinson.

Tony used his nickname system before Galacticos, dating back to coaching his first Sunday League team, Bletchley Colts in Milton Keynes, in 1996.

By 2003, he was coaching his son’s team Allerton Paris-Saint Germain Under-7s and players got nicknames at the end of every session. With Thierry Henry one of his son’s favourite players, that was the choice. The problem was Antonee didn’t like it. Instead he replied, “I want to be a Jedi” as he had been watching Star Wars films and wearing the character’s outfits.

It stuck and followed him into the professional game.

It was strange as an opposition player coming up against The Reds, the team Tony formed in 2005 with his son operating as a left winger. He would stand on the sidelines, shouting famous players’ names and those nine and 10-year-olds would respond.

The Reds was a side packed with some of the best local talent in Liverpool; unfortunately I was part of a defence that came up against it. It was not pretty. They were one of the best teams in the division and won the under-11 Belle Vale League in 2007-08.

The nicknames were a bit of fun and different but it felt part of Tony’s motivational tactics. Getting a nickname meant you joined a group, a team and belonged.

Teams were set up at U15, U16 and U18, with an U14 side added later. This was not a typical Sunday League side; matches would be organised irregularly against academies and teams travelling over from Europe and the United States to challenge his players and hopefully get them noticed.

Tony ran week-long camps during the summer, pre-season and school holidays with regular training sessions throughout the week, wind, rain, shine or snow.

It was coaching of the highest quality, the closest you could get to academy sessions without being in one. It was a gruelling two hours, mixing technical skills involving drills such as rondos or two-touch keep-ball with intense fitness including long-distance running or sprint training.

A litre of water, minimum, was a necessity. The location was the Camp Hill playing fields in Woolton, Liverpool, not far from where Robinson grew up in Hunts Wood. It should not take you long to work out the type of terrain available there and used on occasion for fitness work. Steep was an understatement.

Tony oversaw it all. He has the look of a big, scary drill sergeant, but is one of the nicest men you could wish to meet. He wants every player he works with to succeed and is a passionate, demanding motivator.

“There’s nobody else like Tony Robinson,” says Jimmy Hayes, who worked closely with Tony during the Galactico years, and now is co-director at ProSoccerGlobal as well as a Premier League scout.

“The way he coached, it was as much about the mental side of football as it was about the fitness and technical ability. The sessions were excellently planned. They all had themes and were about developing players through working their socks off and enjoyment, allowing them to express themselves, while teaching them to play the right way.”

It helps explain how Robinson got to where he is. He benefited from his dad’s coaching from a young age.

“For Jedi, those sessions were really helpful because they were supplementing the coaching he was getting at Everton and he was still up against talented players. It was competitive, there were no hiding places,” says Hayes.

Robinson was always at the front in sessions — his desire and mentality was unmatched. His fitness levels were off the charts and remain so. In the United States’ opening two fixtures of the World Cup, just watching him left many tired.

He was acrobatic too, as he showed with his the backflip when he celebrated his maiden international goal against Honduras in 2021.

Jedi, because of his obligations with Everton, rarely played in matches but in the early days of Galacticos he was constantly at training. His involvement decreased as he got older and his responsibilities with Everton grew but he would still be involved in summer camps so he would return to pre-season with a headstart.

“He was willing to make the sacrifices he needed to, to succeed,” says Hayes. “He had that mentality, that focus to make it as a professional and that comes from his family, from Tony’s coaching and how Everton worked with him and helped him improve.”

Robinson had been on Everton’s radar before he joined them aged eleven. His first coach at the club, Colin Littlejohns remembers spotting him at a school’s football festival and passing his number on to Robinson’s mum, Kelly.

“He was really enthusiastic and you could see that love of football,” says Littlejohns. “Instantly you could see he was a wiry, dribbler type of player and head and shoulders above others.”

His family did not want him to go into the academy system too early but Everton were prepared to wait and fight off interest from Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool.

Robinson was offered a two-year academy contract at Blackburn, but it was turned down down because of the travelling involved but also they wanted to play him a year below due to his size.

The family contacted Martin O’Shaunessy, an Everton scout who had originally spotted Robinson at a Saturday Soccer School when he was five and Martin immediately alerted Everton. Along with the recommendation from Littlejohns on their database, they offered him a trial.

Head of academy recruitment Martin Waldron invited Robinson to the development centre first to assess him before he joined the main group. Within a week Robinson was signed.

“He wasn’t the best on the eye but we went with him as a project,” says Waldron. “You have to be patient and gamble on people you can see potential with. You could see he was going to be a good size; he was rapid and he was left-footed.”

Waldron received a text from Tony following the United States securing their World Cup qualification in April thanking him for taking a chance on “the tiniest little speedster” and how Everton had helped him see the dream of watching his son at the World Cup come true.

Littlejohns played a key role in Robinson’s early development at the club, coaching him at under-12 and -13 level.

“He had bags of energy, when we went on tours you had to watch him,” says Littlejohns. “If you took your eye off him for a second he’d be doing some mad flip off a fence. He was infectious and having him around was a joy. He just had this zest for life and raw talent.

“We worked on developing basic techniques. He was raw with his positioning, awareness and recognising what it took to become a footballer and those responsibilities on the pitch. Ball-striking with both feet; they weren’t great initially. He was always a dribbler and loved having the ball at his feet so we tried to drag him out of tight areas to get him free in space so he could impact the game.”

Everybody you speak to about Jedi comments on his exceptional mentality and no matter the setback, he has come through it.

To understand his dedication look no further than the card trick he performed for his Fulham team-mates in the summer. As a teenager he had spent time perfecting the trick watching YouTube. Similarly, his ability to play the piano also came through watching tutorials.

Former Everton player Arlen Birch was part of the squad when Robinson arrived and will never forget the first time he saw Robinson.

“I saw this kid just doing backflips,” he laughed when he spoke to The Athletic this year.

“He had this tremendous work ethic, was mentally tough and was intelligent, so he understood the game. He had a desire to work on what he wasn’t good at,” says Birch. “We would do close control in small boxes and then cross it. He’d practice on his right foot and he might have shanked a few but he kept doing it until he got it right.

“We used to do this hurdle drill during the warm-up and out he went and bought the equipment so he could do it in his own time. He was constantly doing press-ups when everyone else was knackered.”

He was never seen as the golden boy of his Everton age group which featured Joe Williams, Ryan Ledson, Jonjoe Kenny and more, all of whom are enjoying good careers in the game. If anything it made him more determined.

It was a tough, demanding Scouse group, you had to stand up for yourself or you would be swallowed up.

Physically, he was a late bloomer. Born in August he was young in his school year and Everton took that into consideration when assessing him. He got better every year and after starting as a winger he slowly dropped back into defence.

“The tempo and the level went up for him and he had to stick with it,” says Littlejohns. “He was slight but you knew he would eventually get the strength, power and height based on his dad. As he got older I knew it would all come together.”

Even when he suffered multiple injury setbacks he came back stronger — from a fractured patella in his left leg in 2014 and then surgery was required to fix a micro-fracture on his right knee which sidelined him for the entire 2015-16 season.

During his time at Everton, Robinson began to represent the United States at the youth level and despite an invitation to an England under-21 camp, he declined and instead accepted a call-up to the senior US team, making his debut against Bolivia in 2018.

Robinson qualifies for the USA through his father. Born in England, Tony grew up in White Plains, New York, and had an academic and soccer scholarship at Duke University in North Carolina before returning to England. As soon as his son was born, he was at the American embassy in London applying for his American citizenship. As a youngster, Robinson would watch American TV programmes and imitate the accents.

Senior football came in the shape of two successful loan spells, first at Bolton Wanderers and then Wigan Athletic the following season, where he signed permanently in 2018 after finding his pathway to the Everton first team blocked by Lucas Digne and Leighton Baines.

On the way to watch American rapper Schoolboy Q in concert six months later, Robinson received a life-changing phone call. He needed to pack his bags because AC Milan had struck a deal with Wigan.

The following day the defender was sat in Casa Milan with the legendary left-back Paulo Maldini ahead of a £10 million move. A career-defining transfer quickly turned into a nightmare as medical tests discovered an irregular heartbeat. Further tests were required and football became secondary to his health.

A procedure was booked for March 2020, after he underwent tests at Liverpool Heart and Chest hospital, to investigate the problem but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wigan had listed him as injured without revealing the problem before Robinson released a statement detailing the situation.

When his re-arranged procedure arrived in June, the irregularity was gone and the problem was attributed to caffeine. Shots of caffeine had become part of Robinson’s routine that season. The lockdown has stopped him having them.

With Robinson back in action during Project Restart, Wigan suffered relegation to League One following a 12 point deduction after the club went into administration. His relegation release clause was triggered by Sheffield United and Fulham and Robinson chose the latter with international team-mate Tim Ream helping to convince him.

Matching his work ethic with his desire to learn, it is no surprise he looks and feels more composed and confident in all facets of the game in the top flight compared to his debut season in 2020-21. And he has transferred his domestic form onto the international scene.

A 10-strong family party including Tony, Kelly, fiancee Darcy and young daughter Atlas are out in Qatar supporting him.

They have all played their part in Jedi’s journey and the hope is the USA’s final group game against Iran will not be their last of the tournament.

Given his displays in the opening two games, Robinson has an important role to play.

(Photo: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)