Biography
Scottish wide man Robert Snodgrass signed for City in June 2014 for a £6 million fee, following the Tigers’ retention of their Premier League status and entry into European competition piloted by manager Steve Bruce. After making little impact in the Tigers’ stalled European campaign he suffered a serious knee injury during the first half an hour of his League debut at Queens Park Rangers and it took until December 2015, some sixteen months, for Snodgrass to return to first team action. By this time the Tigers had dropped into the Championship and were challenging to make an immediate return, Snodgrass contributed goals and assists in the remainder of the season. His first City goal came in January 2016, an FA Cup tie winner against Brighton, and he added three more strikes in the League. His final seasonal contribution of note was to create the shooting opportunity that Mo Diame smote into the roof of the Sheffield Wednesday net to secure Wembley play-off victory.
Returned to the top flight, City were shorn of squad depth by the owners’ refusal to sign players when a club sale, which ended up being abandoned, was progressing. At this time it was Snodgrass as much as anyone that stepped forward and put in a series of high quality displays that featured seven League goals and two more in the League Cup. While this superb form was not enough to keep City away from the relegation places, it did alert other clubs to his full recovery from the injury suffered two years previously and in January 2017 he transferred to West Ham United for a £10 million fee.
Robert Snodgrass was born in Glasgow and was identified as a prodigiously talented footballer from a young age. Amid direct interest from Glasgow Celtic and Blackburn Rovers, and rumours that Spanish giants Barcelona had also scouted him, Robert chose to join Scottish Premier League side Livingston in July 2003. Turning professional later that year, Robert made his senior debut in a September 2004 Scottish Premier League match against Kilmarnock and scored his first senior goal a month later against Dunfermline Athletic. During his teenage years he established himself in the Livingston first team although he missed the opening months of the 2006/07 season due to a foot injury. He spent the second half of that season on loan at Scottish Division Two side Stirling Albion in order to regain fitness, scoring seven goals in 15 appearances to prove his recovery. Returning to Livingston, who had been relegated while Snodgrass was at Stirling, he played regularly during the 2007/08 season and struck ten goals, taking his Livingston career tally to 17 senior goals in 92 appearances.
In July 2008 Snodgrass joined English League One side Leeds United, who had fallen on hard times and were about to embark on a second attempt to return to the Championship. Robert immediately established himself in the Leeds United first team, making his debut in a League match against Scunthorpe United in early August and scoring his first goal for the club three days later in a League Cup tie against Chester City. Robert’s 11 goals that season helped Leeds reach the end of season play-offs, where they were beaten at the semi-final stage by Millwall. He struck ten goals in the 2009/10 season as Leeds won promotion back to the second tier and served the club for two further seasons at Championship level. After scoring 13 goals in the 2011/12 season Snodgrass was again attracting interest from more loftily positioned clubs and in July 2012 he signed for Premier League side Norwich City for a £3 million fee – he scored 41 goals in 191 appearances during his four years at Leeds United.
In two seasons at Carrow Road Snodgrass scored seven goals in each term as Norwich finished mid-table in his first season and were then relegated in the 2013/14 season. He left the club for Hull City in June 2014 having scored 14 goals in 74 appearances for the Canaries.
In January 2017 Snodgrass moved to Premier League rivals West Ham United for a fee that could reach £10 million. He went straight into the Hammers’ first team but failed to score in the remainder of the 2016/17 season and by the 2017 close season he was deemed surplus to requirements by the London club. He spent the 2017/18 season on loan at Championship side Aston Villa, where he reunited with former Tigers manager Steve Bruce, and his seven goals in 43 appearances for Villa played an important role in the club’s promotion campaign that ended in Wembley play-off defeat against Fulham. Returning to West Ham for the 2018/19 season Snodgrass was again able to establish himself as a first team regular but during the 2019/20 season he was again used less frequently by managers Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes. Snodgrass returned to Hull in September 2020 and scored for West Ham in a League Cup victory over the Tigers, but by January 2021 he was again a peripheral figure and after 11 goals in 86 appearances for the Hammers he was again on the move.
In January 2021 Snodgrass joined West Bromwich Albion, a side struggling at the foot of the Premier League that had turned to ex-England manager Sam Allardyce for survival. He made only eight appearances for the Baggies as they dropped out into the Championship and he added only seven more senior appearances in the 2021/22 season under new Baggies’ boss Valerien Ismael before being released early from his contract in January 2022. A month later he was snapped up by Championship promotion chasers Luton Town on a short term deal, making his debut when coming off the bench in an FA Cup tie against Chelsea, going on to make 11 appearances for the Hatters as they reach the Championship play-offs only to be beaten at the semi-final stage by Huddersfield Town.
In August 2022 he returned to Scotland and signed for SPL side Heart of Midlothian, making his debut in mid-September against Motherwell.
Sondgrass played for Scotland at all youth levels and made his senior debut in February 2011 against Northern Ireland. He retired from international football in 2019 having won 28 caps and scored 7 goals including a hattrick against Malta in September 2016 – his final cap came in October 2019 against Russia.
Details
Nationality: Scotland
Date/Place of Birth: 7 September 1987, Glasgow
Hull City First Game: 31 July 2014, AS Trencin A (Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round First Leg), 26 years, 327 days old
Hull City Final Game: 14 January 2017, Bournemouth H (Premier League), 29 years, 129 days old
Clubs
Livingston (2003-2008), Stirling Albion (2007, loan), Leeds United (2008-2012), Norwich City (2012-2014), Hull City (2014-2017), West Ham United (2017-2021), Aston Villa (2017-2018, loan), West Bromwich Albion (2021-2022), Luton Town (2022), Heart of Midlothian (2022-present)
Hull City Record
Career: 56 apps, 14 goals
Robert Snodgrass| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014/15 | 1 (0) | 0 | - | - | - | - | 1 (1) | 0 | - | - |
| 2015/16 | 18 (6) | 4 | 1 (0) | 1 | 0 (1) | 0 | - | - | 3 (0) | 0 |
| 2016/17 | 19 (1) | 7 | 1 (0) | 0 | 2 (1) | 2 | - | - | - | - |