George Robledo - The First Foreign Golden Boot

George Robledo - The first foreign top goal scorer in England

Chilean Jorge Robledo made his name in the North East of England as he became the first non-English player to end the season as top goal scorer in the league. The modern game is awash of foreign stars and in the last 20 years, the only English players to claim the golden boot have been Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy. 

In the age of overseas stars in England’s domestic league, the story of one of its first and finest should not be ignored. This is the story of Jorge ‘George’ Robledo Oliver, England’s first foreign goal scoring hero.

Robledo - Born in Chile

Born to a Chilean father and English mother, Robledo was brought up in a nation of political turmoil. His birth in 1926 came two years after a military coup by General Luis Altamirano which began a period of political upheaval, with ten different governments overseeing Chile in eight years. 

Constitutional reign was reinstated in 1932 and that is when Robledo’s mother decided to flee the city of Iquique and Jorge’s nation of birth. Being English herself, the obvious location was her homeland and so she took herself and her three sons to Brampton, a mining village in South Yorkshire.

South America to South Yorkshire

Robledo’s childhood was spent in this small mining village and he attracted the attention of the locals for being Chilean born, but more so for his obvious footballing talent. He was only 11 when the second world war began, due to his age he obviously didn’t join the war effort and so he was able to remain at home and hone his footballing ability.

As the war commenced and he grew old enough to work, he used to juggle working in the Yorkshire mines with playing part-time at First Division Huddersfield Town as an amateur. Despite the absence of the football league at the time, Robledo’s performances had attracted the attention of Second Division outfit Barnsley.

They acquired the services of Jorge in 1946 and he was able to give up coal mining and he could make his long-awaited Football League debut at the resumption of football in 1946 at the age of 20. He hit the floor running and scored a hat-trick on his debut against Nottingham Forest. 

During his tenure at Barnsley, the club also signed his younger brother Ted, and the Robledo brothers were tasked with getting Barnsley into the top-tier of English football. However, this did not come to fruition in the two-and-a-half seasons he spent with the Tykes. In his final campaign, 1948-49, Jorge has scored 13 in 27 games and he attracted the attention of a few First Division clubs.

Jorge had made it clear that he would not leave Barnsley unless another club agreed to take him and his brother Ted as part of the deal. In January 1949, one club took him and Barnsley up on the deal.

Robledo’s Transfer to Tyneside

After amassing 45 goals in 105 games with Barnsley, the then second-place team in the English Frist Division, Newcastle United, swooped to secure the signature of the Robledo brothers. 

Playing mostly as an inside left, Jorge made an instant impact at Newcastle, particularly through his on-field partnership with legendary forward Jackie Milburn. Robledo managed to score 11 goals in his first full season at Newcastle which was a decent return for his big move to the North East of England.

These performances in England had attracted the attention of his home nation earning him a call-up to the 1950 World Cup squad despite not speaking Spanish.

Tyne and Silverware

In England, he was helping Newcastle establish themselves as a top club in the First Division but never had enough to win a league title during this period. However, their strong league performances carried over to successive successful cup runs for Robledo and Newcastle.

In 1951, Robledo became the first Chilean and indeed South American, to play in the FA Cup Final. En Route to this momentous occasion, Newcastle defeated Bury, Bolton, Stoke, Bristol Rovers and Wolves before facing Blackpool in the final. 

Robledo played in all seven games that led to the final at Wembley and scored three goals to help his side reach a tenth FA Cup Final. He lined up against the great Stanley Matthews and his Blackpool side in 1951. Robledo had a decisive role in the game as he assisted Jackie Milburn for his first goal and the opening goal of the game, early in the second half. Milburn scored again and Newcastle went on to win their fourth FA Cup.

Newcastle were in the midst of a period of FA Cup dominance and followed up their 1951 success with the successful retention of the Cup. Robledo was even more important in the 1952 campaign as he again featured in every round of the competition scoring six goals in seven FA Cup games. His monumental impact on the side helped them defeat Aston Villa, Spurs, Swansea, Portsmouth, and Blackburn before facing Arsenal at Wembley. 

Newcastle Vs Arsenal - The 1951 F.A Cup Final

The Robledo family had the honour of seeing both brothers line up alongside each other at Wembley on what was to be one of the finest days in both of their careers. George and Ted faced an Arsenal side who had hurried several players back to fitness for the game, this decision massively cost them later in the match.

After just 35 minutes, defender Walley Barnes left the field and with no substitutions available, Arsenal played the rest of the game with ten men. Further injuries to Cliff Holton, Don Roper and Ray Daniel further hamstrung the Gunners who were left with 7 fit players come the end of the match.

Despite this, Newcastle still had hard work of breaking down the North London side. For much of the game, they had the ascendancy but couldn’t provide the finishing touch. This was until George Robledo headed home the late and winning goal for the game with just over five minutes remaining.

The goal clinched successive FA Cup wins for the Geordies, making them the first team to retain the trophy for 61 years, and ensured Robledo’s legacy for Newcastle and in FA Cup history. Further cultural significance of this goal came in 1974 as John Lennon used a childhood drawing of his, on the front cover of his fifth album, Walls and Bridges and it depicted Robles scoring the cup clinching goal.

Walls and Bridges by John Lennon

This goal came off the back of the ground-breaking season for Robles. 1951-52 was to be the year that he topped the goal scoring charts in England, becoming the first foreign player to do so. In all, he scored 33 league goals and 39 goals for the season. This tally levelled a club record from 1920s goal-scoring hero Hughie Gallacher and further cemented Robledo’s significance for Newcastle and within English football. 

His unerring ability to latch onto and dispatch any chance that came his way made him electric that season. One can only imagine the immense pride that his mother must have had in that campaign. She watched both of her sons play football in the First Division, they then lined up alongside each other as they retained the FA Cup in a game where the now club record-breaking goal-scoring hero Jorge, scored the winning goal to clinch the cup. This was just 20 years after they were all living in political unrest in Chile.

Leaving Newcastle, Colo-Colo and Retirement

Newcastle’s reign as cup kings ended in 1953 (although they did win the trophy again in 1955) and they achieved a poor league campaign where they finished in 16th place. Robledo was again the club’s top scorer but only managed 18 goals due to the big drop in performances on the pitch. With his stock still high and being at a good age of 27, Robledo was ready for his next challenge.

Many expected him to remain in England and build upon his record of being the highest-scoring non-British Isles born player in English football, but this was not to be the case. His tally of 82 league goals stood as the benchmark for foreigners in England until Dwight Yorke broke the record in 1998.

George ensured that his brother Ted was again part of any possible deal that would see him leave Newcastle, it was their home nation that provided the greatest lure and so the Robledo brothers joined Chilean outfit Colo-Colo.

Jorge was a standard above the Chilean League and perhaps made this step down too early in his career, but clearly wanted to go back home and learn more about his heritage and his home nation.

Having been brought up in England without being able to speak Spanish, his footballing ability provided him with an opportunity to learn more about the nation his parents left behind. To again be able to do this alongside his brother must have been a great adventure for the two of them.

On the pitch, his potency in front of goal was immediately clear as he finished as top goal scorer in each of his first two seasons. This helped the Robledo name grow in popularity in Chile meaning that Jorge and Ted became heroes of their homeland. This carried into the 1955 South American Championship where Chile finished runners-up on home soil with Jorge scoring four goals in a successful tournament for the Chileans. 

Jorge spent a further three years at Colo-Colo in which time Ted had decided to return to England to represent Notts County. Jorge decided to leave Colo-Colo in 1958 after a successful five years with the club where he won five trophies in as many seasons. It looked to be his retirement from the game at the age of 31 but he triumphantly returned to fellow Chilean side O'Higgins one year later. 

He spent the final two seasons of his career with O’Higgins where he was a bit-part player for the latter stages of his career. In 1960, he retired from football at the age of 34.

George Robledo’s Later Life and Legacy

Jorge’s retirement was quiet and peaceful, he lived in the picturesque coastal region of Viña del Mar in Chile. He worked for a mining company and helped with sports programmes in local schools. He was also asked to help organise the 1962 World Cup which was hosted in Chile, such was his legacy on the game in the country.

Unfortunately, his brother Ted passed away in heart-breaking circumstances as he mysteriously fell from an oil tanker that he was working on in 1970, aged 42. Jorge later passed away of a heart attack in 1989, aged 62. 

Ted Robledo - Vanished from an oil tanker

Despite the sad and premature end for both brothers, their life in football ensured that then and today that their legacy will live on. Jorge was able to catapult his family into a much more comfortable life and his love for his brother and home country was evident throughout his career.

Not only was he a great family man but he was a great footballer, to leave a legacy in the form of club record-breaking goals for Newcastle, FA Cup-winning performances and goals, as well as the benchmark for all foreign footballers for the next 50 years after he left England, illustrates his importance to English football.

Had he remained in England for the final seven years of his career, his tally would have been much larger and so would his legacy. What he does have is the title of being the first foreign player to be the highest goal scorer in English football’s topflight, this record shows how far the game has come as this is no longer a rarity.

Robledo was a trailblazer in England and achieved something monumental that has become the norm today. Without players like him, the English game would not be where it is today and his impact on football in England deserves to be remembered and acknowledged.