Highest scoring overseas star of English football... and it's not Haaland

He was the first overseas star of English football, the Chilean trailblazer who came to the UK as a boy, grew up in poverty in a Yorkshire pit village, scored goals for fun at Newcastle United, and appeared on the front cover of a John Lennon album.

And yet, at a time when almost three-quarters of all Premier League players come from overseas, few people in his adopted homeland have heard of George Robledo.

Now, as the centenary of his birth approaches, and with a new book about Robledo's remarkable life being published, so the man who opened the door to a foreign legion of talents such as Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry and Erling Haaland is about to be discovered by new generations of football fans.

Born in Chile's Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, to a Chilean father and an English mother, George Robledo came to England aged six when his parents chose to relocate the family from South America to West Melton near Barnsley, the village where his mother had grown up.

His childhood was a hard one. On the day of the family's departure from Chile to Liverpool on board the passenger liner Reina del Pacifico, George's father walked out on his wife and three sons, nipping ashore supposedly to buy cigarettes for the journey with their luggage already aboard. It was the last they saw of him.

As a result, George grew up fast, spending much of his time caring for two younger brothers in a one-parent household with little income. When he wasn't looking after his brothers, George could usually be found with a football at his feet or, when the Second World War came, working as a 'Bevin Boy' at Wath Main Colliery, conscripted to dig for coal underground instead of being sent to fight.

Once hostilities finished, George signed for Barnsley where he became a local hero, creating and scoring goals seemingly at will. It wasn't long before other, more successful clubs of the time started showing an interest. Tottenham Hotspur wanted to sign him, as did Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday. Ultimately, Newcastle United won the race for his signature, bringing both George and the middle Robledo brother, Ted, to Tyneside in 1949 (George said he wouldn't sign unless his sibling, who'd followed him into the professional game, was part of the transfer deal).

In the four years that followed, George became a man of firsts with his dazzling footballing exploits. In 1950, he starred for Chile in the World Cup finals in Brazil, becoming the first non-UK or Irish player from the English Football League to appear against England when the two countries went head-to-head in Rio de Janeiro.

The following year, George was the first non-Irish overseas registered, foreign-born player to appear in an FA Cup final when Newcastle beat Blackpool at Wembley. In 1952, he became the first overseas registered, foreign-born player to score in an FA Cup final, heading the only goal of the game as Newcastle saw off Arsenal to retain the trophy.

That very same season, 1951/52, George also scored 33 league goals for Newcastle in what was then called the First Division, or the Premier League as it's known today. Despite the best efforts of Cristiano Ronaldo, Jürgen Klinsmann, Luis Suárez, Mo Salah and a host of other goalscoring greats, no other overseas registered, foreign-born player has reached that number since (not even, technically, Manchester City's free scoring striker Erling Haaland - see the accompanying box for details of why).

Needless to say, George's hero status ballooned, with future England manager Bobby Robson among his millions of admirers.

"I just thought he came from another planet, another world," Robson, who grew up in County Durham supporting Newcastle United, once said. "Good looking chap actually. Compact, solid player, a goalscorer. He was a bit like Alan Shearer really: a good solid body, good legs, strong thighs.

"He got up and down and he played in that attacking half (of the field). He could turn on the ball and he was adept in the air. Most of my heroes were Newcastle United players, and they do not come any bigger or better than George Robledo in my eyes."

Another more unlikely admirer, one not exactly renowned for his love of football, was none other than John Lennon. Growing up in Liverpool, the future Beatle saw a photograph in a newspaper of George scoring the winning goal in the 1952 FA Cup final, and decided to paint his own picture of it.

Years later, when the time came to choose the artwork for his 1974 solo album Walls and Bridges, Lennon reached for a selection of paintings and drawings dating back to his final term at the city's Dovedale Road Primary School. Among them was his recreation of George's winning goal, which Lennon chose for the front cover.

"There are so many different stories about why John Lennon might have drawn that picture," says Elizabeth Robledo, George's only child, who lives in the Chilean seaside resort of Vina del Mar. "Some say it's because he liked the number nine (worn in the picture by George's Newcastle teammate Jackie Milburn) and some say other things.

In May 2023, Manchester City's Erling Haaland was championed far and wide for supposedly scoring the most league goals (36) in a single season by an overseas football player in the top flight of English football. Why supposedly? Well, despite being of Norwegian nationality, Haaland was actually born in Leeds, Yorkshire, in 2000 while his father, Alfie Haaland, was playing for Leeds United. Going by the rules of geography, the record for the most goals scored by an overseas registered, foreign-born player is still held by George Robledo. Splitting hairs? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends how accurate, or pedantic, you want to be. Two men from two contrasting eras, both equally deserving a place in the history books.

"But, at the end of the day, it's my dad's goal that he decided to draw. What an honour for such a magnificent musician to have done that. And it's not just any goal - it's the goal from the 1952 FA Cup final. He could have drawn so many other things, but something made him keep that newspaper clipping and then make a painting out of it.

"It's such an unusual story, but it's such a beautiful story. Knowing John Lennon drew that picture when he was growing up in Liverpool, the place where my dad arrived in England from Chile as a boy, makes it even more special to me. I'm very proud of my dad, but I'm also very proud of John Lennon."

In 1953, George left Newcastle United to sign for Colo-Colo, the largest and most successful football club in Chile, where he continued scoring goals for many years.

He remained in the country of his birth for the rest of his life, dying of a heart attack in 1989 at the age of just 62.

George's funeral saw the streets of Santiago and its surrounding towns lined with mourners four to five people deep paying their respects.

By contrast, his death raised barely a mention in the British media. But that's not to say George went completely forgotten, certainly not by those of a certain age living in South Yorkshire and north-east England.

"He was a remarkable man, and a remarkable player, and we were lucky to have him," says Newcastle supporter Peter Donaghy, a fan since 1949, who appears in the pages of my new book, Postcards From Santiago, the first ever biography of George Robledo.

"We've had many great goalscorers over the years, men like Jackie Milburn, Andy Cole and Alan Shearer, but George was as good as any of them. If anything, he was even better, because he created goals as well as scoring them.

"There'll never be another George Robledo."

Elizabeth Robledo adds: "It's funny to think that there are so many overseas stars playing the game in England now, and yet my father was the very first.

"Even though he was born in Chile and played international football for Chile, my father was so proud of the fact he grew up in Yorkshire and started his career with Barnsley. He always said his happiest years were those spent playing for Newcastle. For dad, England and Britain never went away. It was always in his heart. He was so happy in Chile, definitely, but a bit of him never really left England.

"For him to have his very own book makes me so happy. My dad was a true pioneer, so it's wonderful to think more people will be able to read about his incredible life. This season also marks the 100th anniversary of his birth in April 1926, so it's lovely that it's happening now."

• Postcards From Santiago: The George Robledo Story, by Spencer Vignes, (Biteback Publishing, £20) is out now