Robert Alexander Mann (born 11 January 1974) is a Scottish former professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...
who last played for Formartine United.
During his youth career, Mann played for St Columba U9s, West Park U10s, Fairmuir u11s to U15s and Dundee United Social Club U16s.
Mann, a defender, started his career with
St Johnstone
St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...
in 1991 before joining
Forfar Athletic
Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and currently play in . They play their home games at Station Park, in t ...
a year later. He remained with Forfar for 7 years before moving to
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, Inverness CT or just Inverness, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team competes in , the third tier of the Scottish Professional Footba ...
in 1999. He was part of the Inverness team who famously defeated
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
in the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, and he helped them reach the
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...
for the first time in season 2003–04.
Despite having reached the Premier League with Inverness, he joined fellow Premier League club
Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
. In his first season at
Dens Park
Dens Park is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland, which is the home of club Dundee F.C. and has a capacity of . Tannadice Park, the home of rivals Dundee United, is just 200 yards (183 metres) away.
History
Dundee moved to "Dens" from the ...
, Dundee were relegated to the First Division. Although he was appointed
club captain
The captain of a football/soccer team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team; they are often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavily influ ...
, Mann became an increasingly peripheral figure for the ''Dark Blues'' during the 2006–07 season. He reached an agreement to leave Dens Park and was re-united with former boss
Steve Paterson
Steven William Paterson (born 8 April 1958) is a Scottish football manager and former player.
Nicknamed "Pele", after six first team games for Manchester United, his career was curtailed due an injury in a pre-season game after transferring to ...
on 31 January 2007, after signing with Scottish 2nd Division side Peterhead. Mann was once again re-united with Paterson when he left Peterhead and signed for Scottish Highland League side Formartine United F.C as player/assistant manager to Paterson.
Ian McCall once said of Bobby Mann, after missing out on his signing when manager of Dundee United, "Bobby Mann is without a doubt the best distributor of a ball from defence, bar none".
Current status: Bobby is currently a taxi driver in the City of Dundee