A look at former Norwich City player Robert Fleck’s inclusion in Scotland’s squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
Robert Fleck’s call-up to Scotland’s squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy came on the back of an impressive start to Glasgow-born forward’s Norwich City career. Joining the Canaries from Rangers in December 1987, for a fee of £580,000, Fleck scored 34 times in 72 appearances in his first two and a half seasons at Carrow Road, with 15 his strikes during the 1988/89 campaign helping fire the club to a fourth-place finish in the First Division table.
Fleck made his debut for Rangers against Heart of Midlothian, aged just 18 years and 240 days at the time, and went on to score 34 goals in 104 appearances for the Light Blues prior to his 1987 move to Norwich City. During his time under contract with the Glaswegian giants, the forward was loaned to Partick Thistle, for whom he scored once in two appearances for during the 1983/84 campaign.
Having previously been capped by Scotland at Under-21 level, Fleck made his senior international debut in a friendly match against Argentina on March 28, 1990. He played the full 90 minutes of the match - which Scotland won 1-0 thanks to a goal from of Stewart McKimmie – in front of a crowd of 51,537 at Hampden Park.
Fleck was one of two then-Norwich City players to be included in Andy Roxburgh’s 22-man Scotland squad for ‘Italia ‘90’ along with Bryan Gunn. He was an unused substitute for the Tartan Army’s Group C opener – a 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica on June 11, 1990 but featured in their other two games at the tournament. He started in the 2-1 victory over Sweden in Genoa five days later and came on as a 77th-minute substitute for Ally McCoist in the 1-0 defeat to Brazil on June 20, 1990 which saw the Scots eliminated from the competition.
Fleck’s good form for Norwich continued after his return from the World Cup as he netted nine times in 23 appearances during the 1990/91 season. During the campaign, he won his fourth and final cap for Scotland, as he lined up in a friendly against the USSR at Ibrox on February 6, 1991. The striker then bagged 19 goals in 35 Canaries appearances in 1991/92 in which proved to be his last season in his first spell with Norwich City. He departed for Chelsea for £2.1m before the start of the first Premier League season, signing off at Carrow Road having scored 66 goals in 181 appearances for the Canaries between 1987 and 1992.
Fleck netted four times in 48 appearances for Chelsea. During his time under contract with the Blues, he was loaned to Bolton Wanderers for part of the 1993/94 season and to Bristol City in 1995. He returned to Norwich on loan in August 1995, with the transfer made permanent on September 28, 1995 for a fee of £750,000. His ‘second debut’ for the Canaries came in a 2-1 win over Oldham Athletic in a First Division clash at Carrow Road on August 30, 1995. Fleck scored 12 goals in 37 appearances for Norwich during the 1995/96 season and followed up with four strikes in 33 matches the following season. He was sold to Reading for £50,000 in March 1998, having scored a total of 84 goals in 299 games for the Canaries across his two spells with the club.
Fleck’s professional playing career came to an end in 1999 which followed by spells as manager of Gorleston (player-manager) and Diss Town, while he worked as a scout for Norwich City for a period thereafter.
Words by Andy Greeves.