Long battle

Robson had already fought off the disease four times before finally succumbing to it at the Robson family home early on Friday.

"It's a sad day," said Don Howe, who was Robson's assistant with England at the 1990 World Cup. "He was a man of standards. Whatever he talked about or did, he had high standards to do the best he could possibly do and he lived his life that way.

"Having known him since the 1950s when he was transferred from Fulham to West Brom, where I was already, we just gelled together."

A player for English clubs Ipswich Town, Fulham and West Bromwich Albion, he won 20 caps for England, but it was as a manager that he achieved his greatest success.

Robson led England to the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals and the 1990 World Cup semifinals, where the team lost in a penalty shootout to West Germany, which went on to win the tournament.

He had made a name for himself much earlier by coaching Ipswich Town to FA Cup success in 1978 and leading the small-town club to a UEFA Cup title three years later.

Robson moved on to PSV Eindhoven, where he twice won the Dutch championship, and then went to Portugal with Sporting Lisbon. After then moving to Porto, he led his new club to two championships, before being signed by Barcelona, with whom he won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1997. Robson was credited with bringing the Brazilian international Ronaldo to Barcelona.

Then it was back to PSV for another season before taking up the coaching position with Newcastle United, the club he had supported as a boy. When he arrived in 1999, Newcastle were bottom of the table, but they put eight past Sheffield Wednesday in his first home game in charge, and survived comfortably.

Respects paid across soccer world

Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho, who got his start in coaching after working as Robson’s translator at Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona, said: "It is difficult to accept such a person is no longer with us - but he is immortal because he leaves in everybody who knows him a mark of his personality - a great coach but, more than that, a great person."

Barcelona said in statement on its Web site that the club was "in mourning. On Friday morning the football world lost a true gentleman … Sir Bobby Robson is one of world football’s true legendary figures."

"Sir Bobby was a wonderful man, a real gentleman," said current England manager Fabio Capello in a statement. "He loved the game and was extremely proud of his country and the North East region."

"He just mesmerized everybody, it was a pleasure to be in his company," said the former Newcastle assistant manager Terry McDermott.

"Sir Bobby is a legend over the world," said the former midfielder Paul Gascoigne, who played in the 1990 World Cup under Robson. "He was the one who gave me my first run-out for the England team."

dfm/dpa/AFP/Reuters

Editor: Chuck Penfold