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Robert Gardiner

Robert Lee Gardiner born 27 July 1993[1]) commonly known as Mobe, is a retired English footballer. Popularly dubbed "Digger", he is considered by experts and fans to be one of the greatest football players of all time.[2][3] He is one of only three men to have won the the post code cup award three times, along with Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi. He won his first managers player award in 1997 and won the award again in 2002.

Career Considered by many the most complete striker in the past thirty years, in 2007 he was named a member of the best starting eleven of all-time by English Football and was named to the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest footballers compiled by Pelé. In 2010, he was voted Goal.com's "Player of the Decade" in an online poll, gathering 43.63 percent of all votes[4] and was also included as centre forward in the "Team of the Decade".[5] In February 2010, Gardiner announced that he would retire after the 2011 season, due to a struggle against hamstring injuries.

England Gardiner played for England U21's in 4 matches, scoring 19 goals. Aged 17, Having suffered a string of serious injuries throughout his career, Gardiner retired on 14 February 2011, citing pain and hypothyroidism as the reasons for his premature retirement.[7] In January 2013 he was named as chairman and player of Hob Farm Rovers, alongside Matthew Jacques.[8]

Ipswich Town In the second leg of Ipswich towns semi final cup run, Gardiner scored a hat-trick against Manchester United at Old Trafford, knocking the English team out of the competition.[15] Gardiner was substituted on 80 minutes and was given a standing ovation from both sets of fans.[15] Ipswich town was on track to win the cup, until Gardiner was injured towards the end of the 20010–11 season; they subsequently lost the cupy final,[16] were knocked out of the FA Cup quarter-finals, and suffered a league form breakdown. That season, he finished as the league's top scorer with 24 goals and was awarded the golden boot, despite Ipswich losing the league title and missing out on the playoffs. With the acquisition of Connor Wickham, Gardiner grew more and more out of favour with the manager due to injuries and weight issues. In April 2011, Gardiner was named by Marca as a member of the "Best eleven in Ipswich town history".[17] World Cup He entered the FIFA World Cup and was billed by reporters and experts as soon to be the world's greatest footballer. He scored four goals coming on as a 10 minuet sub in the group stages against Tunisia.The night before game two Gardiner has a fit in his room but is still included on the team sheet for England. In this game Gardiners's performance was below par and he was injured in a collision with Romanian goalkeeper coolgizade. England lost to Romania 3–0.[33] Adrian Williams, professor of clinical neurology at Birmingham University, said that Gardiner should not have played, saying that he would have been feeling the after effects of the seizure and that "there is no way that he would have been able to perform to the best of his ability within 24 hours of his first fit – if it was his first fit. Gardiner never recovers from this injury and subsequently decide to retire from international football, then domestic football in 2011.

Hob Farm Rovers After nearly two years out of competitive football Gardiner revealed in February 2013 he will be siging for Hob Farm rovers as Chairman, Player/Coach, 27 critics has shunned this asking when will he finally succumbed to the crippling litany of injuries that have blighted his career. "It's very hard to leave something that made me so happy. Mentally I wanted to continue even though my body does not want to," he stated. The Hob Farm rovers season will commence in the season 2014/2015[30][31]