Robbie Williams has referred to as his cope with Port Vale “a match made in heaven” after the membership introduced that the pop icon’s RW brand will function on the entrance of their shirts for the following two seasons.
Williams, who was born close to the fourth-tier workforce’s Vale Park residence within the Staffordshire city of Burslem, can have his initials displayed on the Valiants’ residence and away kits and change into an envoy for Vale’s charitable basis.
“I began going to the Vale when it was 50p for a junior supporter to get in,” mentioned Williams. “It takes a village to boost a toddler, and the Railway Paddock [stand] at Vale Park raised me.
“It feels fairly unbelievable, to be trustworthy. Robbie Williams, on the entrance of a Port Vale shirt. It’s a match made in heaven, for me.”
We’re extraordinarily proud to announce a landmark two-year partnership with world music icon and life-long supporter, @robbiewilliams.
Along with the front-of-shirt sponsor, Robbie will change into the very first @PVFCFoundation ambassador.#PVFC | #RobbieWilliams pic.twitter.com/343aRLSBBY
— Port Vale Soccer Membership (@OfficialPVFC) June 12, 2026
The 52-year-old credited Vale chair and co-owner Carol Shanahan and her household, who took over in 2019, together with his elevated involvement within the membership, who will put the house shirt on sale on June 13 at 09:00 BST.
“Being embraced once more by the Port Vale household has been essential to me,” added Williams, whose Instagram following of greater than 3.8 million contrasts with the membership’s whole of round 54,000. “It feels great.”
Robbie Williams: Why Port Vale is ‘correct love’
Born in 1974, Williams has estimated that his first recreation was in 1982 at close by rivals Stoke Metropolis.
He discovered the crowds “scary” and spent years watching the game on TV, falling in love with Manchester United however holding little hope of visiting Previous Trafford, recalling that Manchester “may as nicely have been Mars”.
“By the point I grew to become sufficiently old to depart the home, Port Vale was simply across the nook,” he advised Copa90 Football.
“I might muster 50 pence – I used to get it from my nana. Then Port Vale grew to become my residence and my membership, then my first correct love.”
Williams has ranked his best second as an FA Cup fourth spherical residence win over Tottenham in January 1988, incomes him a windfall as a result of he ran a ebook on the sport at college.
“I took bets and everyone wager in opposition to Port Vale, however I wasn’t excellent at maths so I simply type of made these odds up [and said] ‘it is best to come and have a wager with me’, as a result of I used to be simply making a gift of cash.
“However then Port Vale pulled off an enormous upset and I pocketed 4 and a half quid, which could as nicely have been £4,000 on the time.”
Robbie Williams Port Vale funding
Vale beforehand acquired £240,000 from Williams after they have been dealing with monetary difficulties in 2006, making him their majority stakeholder on the time.
In Might 2011, Williams gave his proxy voting rights to the Port Vale Supporters’ Membership, permitting followers the deciding vote at a rare basic assembly.
“It wasn’t an funding,” he mentioned of the cash. “It was giving my cash away. An funding would counsel that I’d be getting one thing again out of it however I gave them cash, from what I understood on the time, to cease them going into administration.”
Talking concerning the new partnership, Vale chief government Matt Hancock referred to as Williams a “world celebrity” and “real supporter of the membership with a deep and private connection to our city”.
“It’s that authenticity which makes this so highly effective,” advised Hancock. “From the very first conversations, it was clear this was about Robbie’s life-long love for Port Vale and making a tangible distinction to individuals’s lives.
“The help and publicity the partnership will give to the membership and basis will assist us attain extra individuals, create extra alternatives and proceed utilizing the membership as a power for good.
“We’re grateful to Robbie and his workforce and might’t wait to see the partnership come to life, beginning with the discharge of our new kits for 2026/27.”
Robbie Williams as Port Vale president
In February 2024, Williams was named Vale president alongside membership legend John Rudge, whose achievements included overseeing three promotions between 1985 and 1994.
“There have been plenty of good bits to the journey and one of many actually, actually good bits has been attending to know this younger man,” co-owner and chairperson Carol Shanahan mentioned on the time (through Vale’s website), talking concerning the relationship between the hierarchy and Williams.
“It’s such an honour for us that we’ve Robbie as a Port Vale fan and we needed to honour that with this position.
“Robbie is at all times welcome right here at Vale Park and we’re all very grateful that he has agreed to be ‘El Presidente’.”
Williams referred to as the transfer “outstanding”. “There have been many, a few years once I wasn’t at Port Vale,” he acknowledged.
“However Port Vale have been at all times in my coronary heart and so they at all times shall be. Your workforce chooses you. You don’t select your workforce.
“I didn’t come up for a lot of causes, however then I got here up and met Carol and every part modified for me. Once I met Carol, the doorways to the town opened up once more for me.
“I’ve genuinely felt like I’ve come residence. It’s an honour to be again right here within the metropolis – we’re one of many nation’s finest and worst-kept secrets and techniques, with who we’re as a individuals and what we symbolize, what our hearts stand for.
“We’re the kindest individuals on the planet and this membership is coming from a spot of kindness. It’s distinctive to have a spot like this that feels prefer it’s love and feels prefer it’s residence and feels prefer it’s doing one thing extremely essential locally and on the pitch.
“Everyone knows how a lot Burslem specifically wants this membership, however we additionally understand how a lot this membership wants Burslem, too, and the individuals of Burslem and surrounding areas.”
World Cup 2026: How Robbie Williams music performs an element
FIFA made Williams their Music Ambassador in June 2025 and the creator of their official anthem, Want, which debuted on the Membership World Cup that summer season.
Along with singer Nicole Scherzinger, Williams carried out on the World Cup draw on the Kennedy Middle in Washington DC final December.
Earlier than the opening match of the 2018 World Cup, which featured Russia and Saudi Arabia in Moscow, Williams rang out hits together with Let me Entertain You, Really feel and Angels.
“It’s by no means not been a part of my life,” he has mentioned of soccer. “It’s at all times been there. It’s been the one constant factor other than my nearest and dearest that has stayed with me as a ardour for the entire of my life issues.
“Issues come and go: different sports activities, laptop video games, style, meals. However soccer is like respiration to me.”
What has Robbie Williams mentioned about Port Vale and Take That?
When Williams and band Take That have been scaling the charts through the early Nineties, Williams took digital camera crews round Vale Park.
“I solely bought into music as a result of I used to be not good at sufficient at soccer,” he admitted. “The unique dream was to be a footballer however that was by no means going to occur as a result of I didn’t have the expertise.
“I believe they mentioned ‘you’re gonna want one thing to fall again on’, so I took a job in a boy band.”
A solo artist between 1996 and 2006, Williams then returned to Take That for 5 years and stays idolised by many for his work with the group and below his personal steam.
When did Robbie Williams tour to Port Vale?
A gig at Vale Park had been scheduled for 2020 however was delayed till 2022 due to the Covid pandemic.
The present offered out to twenty,000 punters and commenced with 1997’s Let me Entertain You, which reached quantity three within the UK.
Nonetheless a eager participant, Williams says his appearances in testimonials at Vale Park have produced “various levels of success and numerous levels of how severely the opposition have been taking it”.
“I performed in opposition to an Aston Villa workforce who have been nonetheless taking part in within the season and folks have been taking part in for locations,” he recalled.
“That wasn’t enjoyable. However then [I played] in opposition to Leicester and it was like a post-season p***-up. That was a load of enjoyable – and I scored, too.”
Photographs: PVFC
