Commonly regarded as a fine goalkeeper before he joined Tottenham, it was only seeing him week in, week out, that you realised what a truly excellent goalie he could be and for only £1.7 million, he represented a brilliant signing by the club.
In 1997, he signed as a trainee for Leeds United and won the FA Youth Cup with the Yorkshire club, making his first team debut in October the following year. In the same month in 1999, he was representing England at Under-21 level, but was kept out of the Leeds side until Nigel Martyn was injured in October 2000. This run in the first team saw him feature in the club's good run in the Champions League and in February 2002 he signed a new five year deal at Elland Road. Became first choice at Leeds in 2002-03 and he stepped up to the senior England team, playing as a substitute in a defeat at Upton Park at the hands of Australia.
The big man impressed when at Leeds United and even in their relegation season, he was outstanding. It was during this season (2003-04) that Tottenham tried to sign him before the end of the January transfer deadline and in June 2003, Aston Villa agreed a fee for the keeper. Robinson wanted to stay and try to keep Leeds up, with the club's perilous financial situation meaning they were keen to do the deal, it was not possible to conclude a satisfactory outcome. Robbo wanted to sign for Spurs, but be loaned back to Leeds for the rest of the season, but United already had their quota of loan players, so the deal failed.
However, with Leeds failing to beat the drop (despite Robinson heading an equalising goal in added time for Leeds against Swindon Town in the Carling Cup), Tottenham made a swift approach for the giant goalkeeper. There was no agreement that Spurs would seal the transfer that summer, but Paul was touched that Tottenham felt strongly enough about his talent that he signed straight away. This was despite it being well-publicised that Arsenal and Manchester United were seeking to recruit a new keeper.
On arriving at the club, Paul developed a great rapport with the fans (especially at the Park Lane end) and with good reason, as his displays were often the difference between losing points in close games.
The sheer size of the man and the innate goalkeeping ability he possesses are ready made for him to join the long line of goalkeeping heroes at the club. Handling, shot-stopping, communication, reflexes and speed off the line are all top notch. A knee ligament injury caused him to miss the last two matches of the 2004-05 season, but Robinson returned for the start of 2005-06, as good as ever.
He suffered some criticism for his performances in the World Cup finals of 2006, but this may have been as a result of the defence in front of him not performing that well. This proved to be the case in the Euro 2008 qualifiers too, with a back pass from Gary Neville hitting a divot on the pitch and the ball jumping over Robbo's attempted clearance. Overcame this to perform well when called upon in the Spurs goal as they came back into form after a shaky start to the season. But the critical battering that Robinson took in the papers for the fluke goal seemed to severely damage his confidence and put him even further under the spotlight of the tabloids.
Mistakes started to creep into his game and while he was an ever-present when fit under Jol, after the Dutchman exited White Hart Lane, to be replaced by Juande Ramos, Robinson's place in the side was not so sacrosanct. His place often went to Radek Cerny, although some of the time it was because of injuries, but his continuing errors filled the papers with rumours that Ramos was to replace him in the summer of 2008 with a goalkeeper he knew better from one of the Spanish sides. Robinson lost his England place to David James and had a fight on his hands to salvage his reputation.
With Heurelho Gomes being signed for big money in the summer 2008 transfer window, Robinson moved to Blackburn Rovers to try to get his career back on track in their first team, where he replaced the out-going Brad Freidel on a five year deal. While there, a back injury ruled him out of contention for the first team and this necessitated an operation. Complications set in, with a blood clot on his lung, that threatened his life and thankfully, he survived, missing six months football because of his incapacity. Rovers had move dot replace him in his absence and while he started the 2014-15 season, he soon realised he was going ot be number two to Jason Steele, so decided to leave in January 2015 for Burnley.
The side were challenging at the top of the Championship and he failed to break into the side as they reached the Premier League, where he did get three appearances in for the first choice keeper Tom Heaton before finally hanging up his gloves in July 2017.
A great favourite with the fans, Robbo turned out in the ceremony to mark the last game at White Hart Lane and remembered his favourite moment as a Spurs player when the Park Lane sang "Happy Birthday" to him during a match against Everton on 15th October 2005.