Throughout Wales’ penultimate home qualifier for Euro 2016, against Israel in October, thousands of fans sung one song over and over and over again, with brass accompaniment from the Barry Horns band. The tune was taken from a 1987 hip-hop hit – Salt ‘N’ Pepa’s ‘Push It’ - and the words were simple: “Hal .. Robson ... Hal Robson-Kanu / Hal … Robson, Hal Robson-Kanu”. On and on it went for 10 whole minutes, as fans bounced up and down with giddy glee. Gareth Bale is Wales’ best soloist but Robson-Kanu, the selfless utility forward, symbolises their spirit.
Becoming a symbol of Welsh pride was not easy for a player who was born in west London and represented England at Under-19 and Under-20 level before pledging his future to Wales thanks to his Caerphilly-born grandmother. But the fact that nothing has come easy to Robson-Kanu is one of the keys to his popularity and helps make him a fitting emblem for a country preparing for its first international tournament since 1958.
Robson-Kanu signed for Arsenal when he was 10 but was released by the club when he was 15 because he was showing no signs of developing into the powerful athlete that he is now. “I was one of the smallest players in the squad,” he later explained. “I wasn’t fast enough, strong enough or big enough.” But Brendan Rodgers, the director of Reading’s academy who would later become the manager of Swansea, Liverpool and Celtic, detected his talent and took him to Reading.
But more setbacks were in store for the aspiring player at Reading: soon after arriving he suffered a serious knee ligament injury that ruled him out of action for over a year. Shortly after recovering from that, he tore his knee ligaments again and was condemned to another long absence, missing nearly three years in total. But he came back stronger – and taller, having shot up to 6ft 1in – and was soon considered one of the brightest prospects in England, which is why he was selected for the country’s Under-19 and Under-20 teams. He made his first senior appearance for Reading on the opening day of the 2009-10 season. Towards the end of that campaign he switched allegiance and played for Wales Under-21s before making his full international debut in a 2-0 defeat to Croatia in May 2010.
Robson-Kanu has now been at Reading for 11 years and fans of the club are divided over how they feel about the likelihood of him leaving this summer – many value him, but plenty think that even a club in the Championship can find several wingers with more magic and danger. The player has not signed a new contract and the thinking is he will attract offers from higher clubs if he performs well at Euro 2016. And he is likely to perform well. That does not necessarily mean that he will score any goals or wow anyone with trickery. It means he could continue to be as effective as he was throughout the qualification campaign, when he scored only once but was instrumental in the team’s success.
Coleman’s achievement has been to forge true synergy, devising a system that makes Wales solid while enabling their sharpest players, Bale and Aaron Ramsey, to do as much damage as possible. The manager was castigated for seemingly being too negative when the side scraped a 2-1 victory over Andorra in their first qualifier but the wisdom of the system soon be came clear: the switch to three central defenders, a pair of holding midfielders and two wing-backs helped make the team tight, while the role of the centre-forward gave Bale and Ramsey space in which to thrive. That role was often entrusted to Robson-Kanu, who is usually a winger but played it superbly. Many wingers could have complained or just floundered after being asked to play as a centre-forward whose main responsibility was to drag defenders out of position with selfless runs. Not Robson-Kanu.
The win in Israel was a highlight. The Israelis trounced Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-0 in their previous home match and they expected Wales to defend heavily in Haifa. Instead the Wel
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