Newcastle United travel to the Nou Camp to face Barcelona - and memories are Sir Bobby Robson will come flooding back
Sir Bobby Robson is loved both in Newcastle and Barcelona
Sir Bobby Robson is loved both in Newcastle and Barcelona
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In Old Eldon Square by the war monument, a crowd gathered. It was a mix of colour. The blue and red of Barcelona awash with the famous black and white of Newcastle United.
The two teams were set to meet in The Champions League just hours later with all the riches that comes with victory but right now, the crowd simply embraced one another.
They held each other's scarves aloft - some, just held each other. The history of the two clubs couldn’t be further apart. The Catalan giants - 28 times La Liga Champions, and five time winners of The Champions League, facing a Newcastle United side who waited 70 years to lift their first piece of domestic silverware.
But one person unites the clubs - as his name was been sung aloud by the crowd.
"There’s only one Bobby Robson."
Sir Bobby managed Barcelona for just one season but brought home three trophies in that time. At Newcastle, his five-year stint, returned to The Magpies to Europe and the upper levels of the Premier League.
Again, a vast difference - but the same things underline his time at both clubs; his warmth and passion, not just for the game but the fans that he served. It’s why nearly three decades on since Sir Bobby left the Nou Camp, and 17 years since his passing from cancer, he’s still fondly remembered, so much so his name continues to fill the streets.
His youngest son, Mark, is almost lost for words at the sight and sound of fans uniting in memory of his dad.
“It’s very emotional,” he admits. "It actually really hits me quite hard. I don't know how you would describe it, but it really does affect me. You know, emotionally, it's quite something - it's ridiculous.
"Dad, at Barcelona - it's a long time ago. 30 years? It must be, and for them to be doing that is, I don't know. What's the word? It's incredible to be honest.”
As the Champions League has returned to Tyneside, the pre-match parade of visiting fans has become something not to be missed. Visiting fans from Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan have all created an intimidating experience that comes with European football.
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But Barcelona’s two visits to Tyneside this season, first back in September that ended 3-1 to the Spanish side, and then last week in the last 16 that finished in a 1-1 draw, have been something of a friendlier affair when it comes to spectators.
“It's lovely to see fans come together because often it’s tense and there's rivalry and a dislike and you don't have those friendships," Mark added. “But to come across a situation where the fans think highly of dad, it’s pretty unusual and probably even more so to be singing his name. It does make my hair stand up for sure.
‘It’s incredible that those happy memories [of my dad] that fans have on these things because you support your team and the rivalry in tribalism is quite high, isn't it?
“But this is just completely different, and it's all because of dad. And it’s quite something because often when someone passes, that's it, really but they're singing his name years later and that reflects and rebounds back to back to him which is lovely to see.”
Mark was speaking just days after Newcastle’s 1-1 draw with Barcelona, where the Magpies conceded a penalty in injury time - wiping out what would have been one of the club’s most famous victories.
Eddie Howe and his players travel to Spain tomorrow for the second leg, and despite the heartbreak of the first game, there’s more reason to be optimistic than not to be. Mark, as he so often is, was there with his family to see the first game.
“It was an incredibly special evening, and it just shows the level that we can play at," he enthused. “The players feel comfortable taking teams like Barcelona on and they're not feared by them, or whoever's on their team sheet, they think they can match them.
“They showed everyone that they are good enough to play at the very, very highest level.”
Sir Bobby Robson with Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho after Barcelona's Cup Winners' Cup final win against Paris Saint-Germain in 1997
Sir Bobby Robson with Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho after Barcelona's Cup Winners' Cup final win against Paris Saint-Germain in 1997(Image: Christian Liewig - Corbis)
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Yet despite the understandable hope after such a great performance, there’s no getting away from the daunting task that awaits Newcastle on Wednesday night. Barcelona have won all 13 of their home games in La Liga this season - scoring 41 goals as they look to retain the La Liga title. PSG remains the only side to defeat Barcelona at Nou Camp - winning 2-1 in the Champions League back in October.
But for Mark, he hopes Newcastle channel the approach of his dad.
“He would be fearless," he said. “He would just say ‘you’ve earned the right to be here. You're good enough to be here, don't be afraid. Go and win, because you're good enough.’
“And they should hold no fear, and in the first leg, the players had no fear at all, did they? They went out there for the whole game and were the better team. So why can't they do it again away from home?”
If Newcastle are to progress in Europe’s elite competition, they’re going to have to improve on previous results at the Nou Camp - two visits, two defeats. But if anyone can get their side to rise to the occasion, it’s Eddie Howe. The job the 48-year-old has done since coming in has been remarkable - taking the club from the relegation zone to League Cup winners, and Europe's most prestigious competition.
When you catch up with former players who were lucky enough to work under Sir Bobby, and still follow the club today, the one thing they often remark is how similar the feeling and positivity is under Howe as was under the great man.
“It's a very difficult thing to do,” Mark reflects in terms of building that atmosphere within the club. “But that’s what Eddie has achieved - not just to win the Carabao Cup and do well, but he's brought an expectation.
“It’s a comfortable expectation for the fans to look forward to where they can be proud of the team and what they're seeing, and there is a sort of deeper meaning to it all, and that's just fantastic for the city.
“For dad, he'd been fortunate enough with England and Ipswich and had that European journey to manage top players and he came to Newcastle and built a top team. Eddie's actually doing exactly the same - hopefully, the fans will look back in 10 or 20 year’s time and they'll have the same reflection as they do now with dad.
“Remembering Barcelona, PSG and they're great memories, they're locked in now.
“There will be a story to tell of fantastic memories and that's what Eddie's created, not just at the present time, but he's creating memories, fantastic memories, and that's lovely. That's a great achievement.”
And while it’s always a pleasure to reflect with Mark about his dad’s work at Newcastle - that famous night in Rotterdam against Feyenoord or the draw in the San Siro against Inter Milan - it’s Sir Bobby’s legacy away from football which rightly grabs the attention.
As Sir Bobby entered his final months in his battle with cancer, he launched a charity in his own name. Launched in 2008, the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation has become a leading light in the fight against cancer, bringing pioneering trials that have boosted the battle against the disease.
As the foundation nears its 20 year anniversary, it’s set to take its biggest step yet - a £30million state of the art centre at the Freeman Hospital, which is set to open in 2027.
And if back in 2009, someone had told Sir Bobby and the rest of his family that the foundation would one day have a £30m home?
“I would have said 'no - I don't know what you're talking about,'" Mark admits.
“In 2018, we were turning away patients referrals, and we started thinking about trying to do it then, but even then we couldn't really comprehend and contemplate the idea of a new building, but we needed more space, and then year after year and month after month, you get your head around it.
“We've been planning it for a very long time but when I think of that £30m and the images of the building, where it’s going to be and what it's going to do, it is a hell of a story.
“You know, dad's background - his dad was a miner and that's where dad got his resilience from and tenacity, and that’s how he could survive so long as a manager, and in his cancer journey - he still kept going. And then towards the end of his life, he set up a charity and so that toughness and sort of a resilience, enthusiasm, was instilled in him from his parents and that's where it sprang from.
“Now [for the centre] to be treating people and looking after people and offering them hope, and then developing drugs that could be licensed and are being licensed throughout the world, it’s a hell of a story for the North East, and it’s something we can, and are and should be and will be, enormously proud of because it will be world leading and it's on our doorstep.
“That's just quite an incredible legacy - I can't think of many other legacies like that.”
Plans for the new Sir Bobby Robson Institute at the Freeman Hospital
Plans for the new Sir Bobby Robson Institute at the Freeman Hospital(Image: Sir Bobby Robson Foundation)
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The foundation is backed by funds raised largely from the generosity of the public - and originally set out to raise £500,000. To see the charity going from strength to strength built on the donations, is something the Robson family are grateful for.
“Dad was always extremely cautious with money, and for him to think that people are raising £30m on his name, if you like, to build something, he would be humbled really that people are being so kind and generous.
“Those people are contributing significantly to hope, to help people who are suffering. They should be really proud of themselves and I can’t express our thanks and gratitude enough.”
Launched by Sir Bobby in 2008, The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, part of Newcastle Hospitals Charity, is now working hard on a new goal to benefit cancer patients from across the region and beyond.
Construction of the £30m Sir Bobby Robson Institute, a world-leading cancer trials hub, will begin this spring at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, and is being funded by The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.
With over £20m raised so far thanks to the generosity of supporters, fundraising is now critical to raise the final funds to complete and fully equip the Institute by 2027.