Socceroos Past and Present

Robbie Slater

Robbie Slater was born on the 22nd of November 1964 in Lancashire, England. Slater moved to Australia as a young lad and started his playing career in Australia. He played for various clubs in his youth before joining St George Saints in the National Soccer League in 1982. He won the NSL with St George in 1983, and the following season trialled with Nottingham Forest. The issue for Slater was that St George and Nottingham Forest were unable to agree terms and he returned to Australia.

From St George Slater moved to Sydney Croatia in 1987 before an aborted move to Hajduk Split was quickly followed by a transfer to Anderlecht. Unfortunately, Slater did not see much playing time in Belgium and moved to then Ligue 2 club Lens, which was promoted during his tenure at the club (1990-94).

At the end of the 1993-94 season Robbie moved to Blackburn Rovers, which is where he became the first Australian to win the English Premier League. He was then sold to West Ham United at the end of the season and also went on to play at both Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers during his remaining time in England.

At the end of the 1997-98 season, Slater moved back to Australia to captain a new team in the National Soccer League, the Northern Spirit. He would play with them until his retirement at the end of the 2000-01 season. In 2002, he was player-coach of Manly-Warringah.

Slater was capped on 44 occasions for the Socceroos and his final appearance for Australia was against Saudi Arabia in the 1997 Confederations Cup. Slater is also a member of the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame.

These days, Slater is obviously no stranger to the Australian football enthusiast appearing as an analyst and commentator for Fox Sports, which include the English Premier League, the Australian A-League and appearing on Fox Sports FC.