Robinson's rise has Fulham dreaming of Europe and the U.S. a World Cup

LONDON -- In just the third match of the 2024-25 season, Antonee Robinson knew Premier League opposition teams were paying extra attention to him. The U.S. international was in his usual left-back spot for Fulham , looking to attack down Ipswich Town's right wing. For most of last season, if he'd managed to get the ball near the halfway line, the right winger would have left him to attack one-on-one with their right back. Not anymore.

"It's happening a lot," he tells ESPN.

At Portman Road, Ipswich effectively deployed two players to nullify Robinson's attacking threat, with Axel Tuanzebe and Chiedozie Ogbene tracking Robinson's every move over 90 minutes. "That usually happens against the lower teams in the league," he says. "But then it happened against Chelsea" on Boxing Day at Stamford Bridge, where Malo Gusto and Pedro Neto teamed up on him.

"It can be frustrating to play when it feels like you're jammed on one side," Robinson says. "But if they're paying me that much respect to block me, then the space is going to be somewhere else for us." He helped tee up the Cottagers' first goal, then Rodrigo Muniz scored a 95th-minute winner off good work down the right.

Despite facing more obstacles on the pitch these days, Robinson is having the best season of his career. He has 10 assists in the Premier League, second only to Mohamed Salah. This form has seen him linked with UEFA Champions League teams such as Liverpool, but he remains focused on Fulham, who face Crystal Palace in the FA Cup quarterfinals on Saturday (7:45 a.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+). On the international stage, he's a mainstay in the United States men's national team and will be an indispensable part of the team unashamedly aiming to win the tournament on home soil next year.

All of that raises a question: why, at the age of 27, is he experiencing the best season of his career and being bracketed with the best left backs in the world?

"I don't really think about it like that," Robinson says. "I feel like I'm playing decently at a high level, but one of the best in my position? It's a strange thing to get my head around."

Robinson was never viewed as a footballing prodigy, certainly not like his friend Christian Pulisic who was tipped for greatness as he progressed through the age groups.

"I didn't come through as a star kid," he says. "I was one of the lads who didn't really get looked at as if he was going to do anything. I ended up being one of the best out of my academy, so I've always had this mindset of being humble, and not getting ahead of myself."

Robinson grew up obsessing over videos of elite attackers like Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho, but once he'd settled at left back, he watched Ashley Cole and Marcelo on YouTube instead. As he came through the Everton academy, having joined them at 11 years old, he watched Leighton Baines' every movement.

Robinson was named Everton's Under-18s players of the season, but struggled to break into their first team, so he had loan spells with Bolton and Wigan and signed a permanent deal with the latter in July 2019. He impressed there and in January 2020, he had a medical with AC Milan, only for the deal to break down when they found a heart abnormality. Fulham signed him that summer for a fee in the region of £2 million.

It wasn't an easy ride. He suffered a serious knee injury with the Everton U18s, followed by heart issues in January 2020. As it transpired, he didn't require surgery, instead controlling the symptoms by eliminating caffeine. Those early setbacks helped build resilience. Alongside that, he has an intricate knowledge of how hard he can push his body, so much so that he's missed just three Premier League matches across the past three seasons.

"There are going to be games where I'm not feeling physically at my best, but I will do a job for the team," he says. "I also have a decent pain tolerance. The odd times I am feeling something, I'll put myself forward and know I'll be able to get through it."

Since Marco Silva took charge at Fulham in July 2021, Robinson has been a mainstay in the first team at left back. This season, the man whose nickname is "Jedi" has been exceptional. His performance that drew the most acclaim this term was their 2-2 draw at Anfield on Dec. 14 in which he marshaled Salah. In the Egypt international's 12 one-on-ones with Robinson, Salah lost the ball four times, played two incomplete passes and was forced into a pass backwards on four occasions.

"I had this sense that it was my job to stop him," Robinson says. "I remember the gaffer saying to me, 'Show him on his right.' There were a couple of times where I did that and he went straight past me. You adjust in-game, and react to situations."

Although he's played well against Salah and Bukayo Saka this term, he finds attacking midfielders like Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne harder to handle.

"They drift in and out and go into positions that make it uncomfortable as you're trying to decide whether you jump out to them," he says. "If you do, you're leaving yourself exposed behind for someone else to run in, but if you don't go, they'll have too much space. Someone like those two and Cole Palmer get into clever positions and are harder players to play against."

In the Premier League, Robinson is in joint seventh for the most players tackled (77), fourth on crosses from open play (144) and is tied for the most interceptions (50, with Ryan Gravenberch).

"Marco used to get angry with me for guessing where the ball was going to go," Robinson says. "I might guess right five, six times in a row, and then guess one, where I go out to intercept it and it gets played in behind me and they get a chance from it. Regardless of how well I do in the rest of the game, that'll be the one that annoys him.

"He told me because I'm a fast player, I don't have to guess; I can start inside, let it go there, and then get to it. It's about anticipation and being in a good position, and waiting to see where the passer of the ball's looking and when I see the pass, it's pretty easy as you know your body and you can know if you can get there or not, and figure out the next problem."

Post-match, it's the running stats he checks first. "I like to see if I'm hitting my averages and compare that to how I felt in the game."

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Antonee Robinson explains what's clicked for him this season

Fulham defender Antonee Robinson talks about his success in the Premier League this season.

But it still raises the question: what clicked this season?

"The more you play at any level, the more confidence you get," Robinson says. "In that first season under Marco we finished 10th, we played well, I felt myself improving and I feel I've gotten better and better. This season I've had even more confidence in knowing the league, knowing what I can do and I think the manager's put faith in me. We've shifted how we play, so I'm higher up the pitch, and we're evolving the attack so it's a combination of things, really."

And this form comes just a year out from next men's World Cup, where the United States host the tournament alongside Mexico and Canada.

Since making his debut in 2019, Robinson has earned 50 caps for the U.S. men's national team. That first game against Bolívia had him in a defense featuring Erik Palmer-Brown, Walker Zimmerman and Eric Lichaj with Alex Bono winning his sole cap in goal. Personnel come and go -- the others have since faded from national team contention -- but Robinson has remained. He was omnipresent in the Qatar World Cup and played every minute as they reached the round of 16 -- but this current team has bigger aspirations heading into next year's tournament.

Ever since Mauricio Pochettino replaced Gregg Berhalter in September, he's been telling this group that they have the capability of winning the World Cup next year. Such a bold goal has seen Robinson turn to a young Tiger Woods for inspiration.

Back in 1996 ahead of his pro debut, Woods was interviewed by Curtis Strange. Strange, the two-time U.S. Open champion, asked Woods what his goal was. "Woods says, 'Oh, I'm gonna try and win the tournament.' And the interviewer is like, that seems a bit naive to say you're gonna win against some of these guys when you are young and you're new or whatever. And he's just like, 'Why go to a tournament if you're not trying to win?' And that's how we feel."

To achieve that ambitious goal, Pochettino is testing the players in as many different positions as possible. Against Panama on Oct. 12, Robinson was used as a left winger, while also slotting into central midfield. In their double-header with Jamaica, he was back at left back. Robinson missed this month's international window through an undisclosed ailment.

"We can perform well against anyone on our day," Robinson says. "[Pochettino's] obviously gonna use every window that he's got to test players in different positions as his short-term goal is winning, but slightly longer into next year, he's gonna be trying to win the World Cup.

"He's got a brief window to try and figure out, 'What can I do with different players if I'm playing this team, can he play there? Can he play there?' It's nice to see him doing that with me and different players."

Robinson feels the USMNT need to find more of an edge. He's seen them bullied before, but no more.

"Poch is very like win driven, and he said there are gonna be games where the football is not going to be pretty to watch. Poch used this great example, he said, 'Watch Argentina; they have very good players, but they're all ready to fight and hit people and do the dirty work, which is something we need to improve on because there's games where we haven't done it.'

"It's difficult as a lot of us play in like European leagues where it's very structured and you can't get away with much, whereas you go to Concacaf and people can like step on my foot in a huddle and walk away and nothing happens."

When the summer transfer window opens, Robinson knows his name will be mentioned. He's seen the reports linking him with Liverpool, courtesy of his family and friends who live in that part of the world, but he's taking it all with a large pinch of salt. He's aware of the fickle nature of the sport. He's been burnt before.

"I've been in the game long enough now, you know you've gotta block out the outside noise. I've been on the end of it when I've not been playing well; I saw the criticism when I was younger, people like doubting me and things. I know that there's two sides to the coin.

"You just have to take everything with a grain of salt. You have to believe in yourself, and when things are going bad, focus on yourself, and when things are going good, focus on keeping going. Transfer rumors and stuff like that, I try not to look at. The Liverpool one, all my friends and family are from Liverpool, so it's more them messaging me rather than me seeing newspaper stuff. And I say to them, 'It's just a story in the paper.'

"Eventually I want to perform at the highest level that I can. Whether that's playing Champions League, playing European competitions with Fulham, however I get there, I want to make sure I get there."

So in the meantime, his unwavering focus is on Fulham and his family. He's a fiancée to Darcy and father of his children, Ocean and Atlas.

"It's like working two shifts," he says. "But you want to make them proud. Football's a selfish sport, so it's always a balancing act. But being a dad lets you take a bit of pressure off your game as you can come home from a really bad game and switch off. They don't care if I've had a bad game, they just want to play with me. It allows you to refocus easily enough."

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USMNT's Antonee Robinson addresses Liverpool links

Antonee Robinson speaks about rumours linking him with a move to Liverpool.

He's settled at the club, contracted through to 2028. It's all come together for Fulham this term. Robinson's built a wonderful partnership with Alex Iwobi on the left, and they're in the hunt for European spots while enjoying an FA Cup run.

Robinson has his own personal goal, too.

"I'm working on shooting," he says. "I haven't scored a goal in the Premier League yet so that'd be nice to tick off the checklist."

He has his celebration mapped out, if all goes to plan: "I'm hoping we'd be winning so I can, and there wouldn't be an offside to get checked off, but there'd be a back flip and then something. I'm not sure what the something is yet."

But that's just the next thing to tick off as he enjoys this wonderful run of form. It's come as no surprise to him, nor is there any magic answer to why he's played so well this season. It's just down to old fashioned graft.

"I'm nowhere near the finished article," Robinson says. "I never feel like I am, and I'm always trying to reach the highest level I know I can reach. There's always room to grow."