There aren’t many figures in Australian football who have gotten close to the likes of Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi, but then Robbie Thomson is not your average commentator.
In another time and place, the affable Thomson might have stood a respectable distance from the Parisian barricades in May 1968, baguette in hand, observing the protests with a keen eye and the uncanny ability to describe all the action with a clipped turn of phrase.
“I’m not a militant,” Thomson told me over the course of an hour-long conversation that ranged in topic from his love of the National Soccer League to the time he introduced Lionel Messi to fans of Paris Saint-Germain in the Argentine superstar’s first interview for the club.
He pronounced ‘militant’ in French – and he meant it in the sense of not wanting to get involved in the interminable politics of Australian football – but after an illuminating chat with the cultured Canberra native, it’s hard to imagine a more fascinating figure in the Aussie game.
A self-confessed football fanatic who used to stand behind the goal to watch South Melbourne at Lakeside, Thomson studied Italian at university, before paradoxically pitching up in Paris in 2000 in search of top-class European football – and a job.
“I just wanted to live football,” he tells The Roar. “And so I figured that I had to go to Europe.”
Renting a room from a family friend and working at first in a pub, Thomson got his start in European football at sports network Eurosport, before becoming a freelancer-for-hire, doing whatever it took to cover the beautiful game.
“I translated websites, I started commentating on matches in the African Champions League, or the French Cup, or anything that would come up.”
“I did a lot of commentary for Africa, in English,” Thomson explains. “I went to the African Cup of Nations.
“If something came up or an opportunity presented itself, I would say I would do it… even if I wasn’t necessarily qualified.”
That willingness to dive in and do the job saw Thomson land a role as a reporter for SBS during Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria, where none other than commentary legend Martin Tyler took a shine to the articulate Aussie.
(Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
A quiet recommendation from Tyler saw Thomson jet off to cover the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar for Fox Sports – and ultimately end up back in Australia commentating on the A-League for two seasons for the network.
Yet Thomson himself is the first to admit the step back into the Australian game was a major adjustment.
“I thought football here wasn’t big enough (back then),” he says. “I’d been immersed in it for a decade (in Europe) and I came back here and I wasn’t ready.”
Fortunately for Thomson, his past work as a translator and commentator had not gone unnoticed. When a job came up to work as an in-house broadcast journalist for Paris Saint-Germain, the fluent French speaker grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
It was to be a dream nine-year run for the Aussie, as a succession of superstars strolled through the doors of the Parc des Princes.
Thomson soon became acquainted with global superstars like David Beckham, Angel Di Maria, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani, even if he name-checks a much humbler name as one of his favourite players to work with in the French capital.
(Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The Brazilian, Maxwell,” Thomson says of the former left-back and current PSG assistant sporting director.
And having acknowledged that the megastars of the game tend to keep a watchful distance, Thomson makes clear that his love of the game has always stemmed from standing with the fans on the terrace.
He’s a bona fide football nut, and having simultaneously honed his commentary skills as an in-demand English-language commentator for Ligue 1, his return to the A-Leagues last season was a huge coup for Network Ten.
And he’s excited about the upcoming season ahead.
“I just get excited about the idea of the games being back on,” Thomson says.
“The new players, what we’re going to discover, and the storylines that are there to be written.”
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