Robbie Williams has called his deal with Port Vale “a match made in heaven†after the club announced that the pop icon's RW logo will feature on the front of their shirts for the next two seasons.
Williams, who was born near the fourth-tier team's Vale Park home in the Staffordshire town of Burslem, will have his initials displayed on the Valiants' home and away kits and become an ambassador for Vale's charitable foundation.
“I started going to the Vale when it was 50p for a junior supporter to get in,†said Williams. “It takes a village to raise a child, and the Railway Paddock [stand] at Vale Park raised me.
“It feels pretty incredible, to be honest. Robbie Williams, on the front of a Port Vale shirt. It's a match made in heaven, for me.â€
We are extremely proud to announce a landmark two-year partnership with global music icon and life-long supporter, @robbiewilliams.
In addition to the front-of-shirt sponsor, Robbie will become the very first @PVFCFoundation ambassador.#PVFC | #RobbieWilliams pic.twitter.com/343aRLSBBY
— Port Vale Football Club (@OfficialPVFC) June 12, 2026
The 52-year-old credited Vale chair and co-owner Carol Shanahan and her family, who took over in 2019, with his increased involvement in the club, who will put the home shirt on sale on June 13 at 09:00 BST.
“Being embraced again by the Port Vale family has been very important to me,†added Williams, whose Instagram following of more than 3.8 million contrasts with the club's total of around 54,000. “It feels wonderful.â€
Robbie Williams: Why Port Vale is ‘proper love'
Born in 1974, Williams has estimated that his first game was in 1982 at nearby rivals Stoke City.
He found the crowds “scary†and spent years watching the sport on TV, falling in love with Manchester United but holding little hope of visiting Old Trafford, recalling that Manchester “might as well have been Marsâ€.
“By the time I became old enough to leave the house, Port Vale was just around the corner,†he told Copa90 Football.
“I could muster 50 pence – I used to get it from my nana. Then Port Vale became my home and my club, then my first proper love.â€
Williams has ranked his greatest moment as an FA Cup fourth round home win over Tottenham in January 1988, earning him a windfall because he ran a book on the game at school.
“I took bets and everybody bet against Port Vale, but I wasn't very good at maths so I just sort of made these odds up [and said] ‘you should come and have a bet with me', because I was just giving away money.
“But then Port Vale pulled off a big upset and I pocketed four and a half quid, which might as well have been £4,000 at the time.â€
Robbie Williams Port Vale investment
Vale previously received £240,000 from Williams when they were facing financial difficulties in 2006, making him their majority stakeholder at the time.
In May 2011, Williams gave his proxy voting rights to the Port Vale Supporters' Club, allowing fans the deciding vote at an extraordinary general meeting.
“It wasn't an investment,†he said of the money. “It was giving my money away. An investment would suggest that I'd be getting something back out of it but I gave them money, from what I understood at the time, to stop them going into administration.â€
Speaking about the new partnership, Vale chief executive Matt Hancock called Williams a “global superstar†and “genuine supporter of the club with a deep and personal connection to our townâ€.
“It's that authenticity which makes this so powerful,†suggested Hancock. “From the very first conversations, it was clear this was about Robbie's life-long love for Port Vale and making a tangible difference to people's lives.
“The support and exposure the partnership will give to the club and foundation will help us reach more people, create more opportunities and continue using the club as a force for good.
“We're grateful to Robbie and his team and can't wait to see the partnership come to life, starting with the release of our new kits for 2026/27.â€
Robbie Williams as Port Vale president
In February 2024, Williams was named Vale president alongside club legend John Rudge, whose achievements included overseeing three promotions between 1985 and 1994.
“There have been a lot of good bits to the journey and one of the really, really good bits has been getting to know this young man,†co-owner and chairperson Carol Shanahan said at the time (via Vale's website), speaking about the relationship between the hierarchy and Williams.
“It's such an honour for us that we have Robbie as a Port Vale fan and we wanted to honour that with this role.
“Robbie is always welcome here at Vale Park and we're all very we're very grateful that he has agreed to be ‘El Presidente'.â€
Williams called the move “remarkableâ€. “There were many, many years where I wasn't at Port Vale,†he acknowledged.
“But Port Vale were always in my heart and they always will be. Your team chooses you. You don't choose your team.
“I didn't come up for many reasons, but then I came up and met Carol and everything changed for me. When I met Carol, the doors to the city opened up again for me.
“I've genuinely felt like I've come home. It's an honour to be back here in the city – we are one of the country's best and worst-kept secrets, with who we are as a people and what we represent, what our hearts stand for.
“We are the kindest people on the planet and this club is coming from a place of kindness. It's unique to have a place like this that feels like it's love and feels like it's home and feels like it's doing something incredibly important in the community and on the pitch.
“We all know how much Burslem in particular needs this club, but we also know how much this club needs Burslem, too, and the people of Burslem and surrounding areas.â€
World Cup 2026: How Robbie Williams song plays a part
FIFA made Williams their Music Ambassador in June 2025 and the creator of their official anthem, Desire, which debuted at the Club World Cup that summer.
Together with singer Nicole Scherzinger, Williams performed at the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC last December.
Before the opening match of the 2018 World Cup, which featured Russia and Saudi Arabia in Moscow, Williams rang out hits including Let me Entertain You, Feel and Angels.
“It's never not been part of my life,†he has said of football. “It's always been there. It's been the one consistent thing apart from my nearest and dearest that has stayed with me as a passion for the whole of my life things.
“Things come and go: other sports, computer games, fashion, food. But football is like breathing to me.â€
What has Robbie Williams said about Port Vale and Take That?
When Williams and band Take That were scaling the charts during the early 1990s, Williams took camera crews around Vale Park.
“I only got into music because I was not good at enough at football,†he admitted. “The original dream was to be a footballer but that was never going to happen because I didn't have the talent.
“I think they said ‘you're gonna need something to fall back on', so I took a job in a boy band.â€
A solo artist between 1996 and 2006, Williams then returned to Take That for five years and remains idolised by many for his work with the group and under his own steam.
When did Robbie Williams tour to Port Vale?
A gig at Vale Park had been scheduled for 2020 but was delayed until 2022 because of the Covid pandemic.
The show sold out to 20,000 punters and began with 1997's Let me Entertain You, which reached number three in the UK.
Still a keen player, Williams says his appearances in testimonials at Vale Park have produced “varying degrees of success and various degrees of how seriously the opposition were taking itâ€.
“I played against an Aston Villa team who were still playing in the season and people were playing for places,†he recalled.
“That wasn't fun. But then [I played] against Leicester and it was like a post-season p***-up. That was a load of fun – and I scored, too.â€
Images: PVFC
