Robert Earnshaw: I wanted fans to feel my enjoyment of scoring a goal

The hardest thing in football is to score a goal, but as Cardiff City and West Brom fans in particular will remember, Robert Earnshaw used to make it look easy.

Each time the net rippled he embarked on his trademark celebration – a big smile and arms spread wide as he launched into a somersault. His joy was obvious, and supporters instinctively wanted to share in it.

“My own philosophy is that, whatever I do, I’ve got to have an impact,” Earnshaw says. “It’s not good enough just to be there. You’ve got to have an impact.

“You can be there, and just do a decent job, and not disrupt anything, but for me it’s about the art in your skills, and the craft. It’s the way the goals are scored. The way the enjoyment is felt.

“When I was watching football growing up, it was about the celebrations. Everything on the pitch happens for the purpose of scoring a goal. So when I was doing that, it was about the enjoyment. As a fan, you can feel it. The excitement and the enjoyment that you can’t help but feel when a goal is scored. I wanted other people to feel that.

“I wanted people to understand that when I finish it’s because I’ve put time and hard work into learning how to do it. I wanted everybody to have that connection, so they could feel what I was feeling. That’s what it’s always been about.”

Earnshaw’s passion for football is obvious and infectious. He watched it obsessively growing up, learning as much as he could about players and teams around the world. As a young striker, Romario, Ronaldo, Gabriel Batistuta and Hristo Stoichkov were all influences and inspirations to him.

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There were others closer to home too. Earnshaw was born