In 1980, Robson made his England debut against Ireland. He joined Manchester United for a then British transfer record fee of 1.5 million pounds. He captained Manchester United to victory in the FA Cup with a final replay win over Brighton and Hove Albion in 1983.
In 1982, he set a record in World Cup history scoring the quickest ever World Cup goal after 27 seconds of England's World Cup victory over France in Spain. Robson won the last of his 90 international caps (65 as captain) for England against Turkey in 1990 and scored an impressive 26 goals at international level in total from midfield.
He became the first player to captain three FA Cup-winning teams as United defeated Crystal Palace F.C in a replay at Wembley in 1990. He helped United to win the European Cup Winners Cup in 1991, beating FC Barcelona 2-1 in the final in Rotterdam.
In 1993, United captured their first league title for 26 years. Robson, as club captain, accepted the premier league trophy at Old Trafford alongside team skipper Steve Bruce. However, he left Old Trafford in June 1994 and joined Middlesbrough F.C as player manager.
In 1995, Middlesbrough won promotion to the Premier division in Robson's first season in charge. However, Middlesbrough were relegated from premier league in 1997 but bounced back to the big time the following season.
Robson made his last appearance as a player as Middlesbrough in a 2-0 loss at Arsenal F.C in 1997.
In his 22 years playing career, Robson made 731 league and cup appearances for WBA, Manchester United and Middlesbrough.
Robson was named as Bradford City manager in November 2003.