United States men's national team star Antonee Robinson has told ESPN he is ignoring speculation over his future and wants to play in European competitions with Fulham.
Robinson, 27, has had a remarkable season with Fulham and has helped the team reach the FA Cup quarterfinals and rise to ninth in the Premier League table. He was also named the 2024 U.S Soccer male player of the year in January.
His form has caught the eye of other teams, with reports linking Liverpool with a summer move for the left-back.
There was interest from clubs in January, but a source has told ESPN that Fulham had no desire or intention to let the left-back leave the club. That stance remains the same heading into the summer window, and Robinson is treating all reports of outside interest with a grain of salt.
"I've been in the game long enough now to kind of know you have to block out the outside noise and things like that because I've been on the end of it when I've not been playing well," Robinson told ESPN. "I saw criticism when I was younger, seeing people doubting me and things. So I know that there's two sides to the coin.
"You just have to take everything with a grain of salt. You have to believe in yourself and when things are going bad, focus on yourself, and when things are going good, focus on keeping going.
"So, transfer rumors and stuff like that, I try not to look at. Especially like with the Liverpool one, all my friends and family are from Liverpool, so it's more of them messaging me than me seeing newspaper stuff. And I have to say, look, it's just, just a story in the paper and anyone who's doing well is going to get linked to a team."
Talking to ESPN's Herculez Gomez on Fútbol Americas, Robinson said he has European aspirations and he hopes to realize them at Fulham. "I'm truly focused on just reaching the level I feel I can, which takes a lot of work off the pitch as well, trying to make sure I keep my body right, doing all the extras and training, things like that to make sure I'm on my best level.
"Eventually I want to perform at the highest level that I can. Whether that's playing Champions League, playing European competitions with Fulham, however I get there, I want to make sure I get there."
Robinson took Fulham's fourth penalty in the team's FA Cup fifth round penalty shootout win over Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Robinson said the win felt "personal" after recent history between the two teams. They met in the FA Cup quarterfinal in May 2023 and lost 3-1, after having and Willian and Aleksander Mitrovic both sent off in the 72nd minute along with manager Marco Silva, but Fulham made amends for that at the weekend as they drew 1-1 before winning 4-2 on penalties.
"I mean it was a big moment of relief," Robinson said of their penalty shootout triumph. "I think just in general, the amount of times we played Manchester United and they've beat us like in the last minute when we've outplayed them. So it like felt really personal because it's stung a lot. And then obviously we had the quarter final incident where we had three sent off and lost out to them. So I think it just felt a bit of relief to not necessarily get revenge, but to just finally, you know, deservedly beat them and advance through to the next round.
"You know that in a game like that, even though, you know, we're higher than Manchester United in the league this season, they still would've been the favorites for the game. And we felt as a team the pressure was pretty much all on them. The only pressure we put on ourselves is to kind of play the best we can. And if we give everything, then on the day we can try and beat anyone. So when it got to penalties, even though the atmosphere, was very loud, very noisy, I just got the sense they're the ones under pressure here not us."