Robson de Souza (born 25 January 1984 in São Vicente, Brazil), more commonly known as Robinho, is a Brazilian professional footballer who currently plays as a striker for Serie A club Milan. He is currently captain of the Brazilian national team.
Robinho was personally picked by Brazil legend Pelé as his heir apparent at only 15 years of age and went on to lead Santos to their first Campeonato Brasileiro title since Pelé himself played for the club. Since then he has won another title with Santos and two more with Spanish club Real Madrid. Robinho has won one Copa América title and two Confederations Cups with Brazil.
Club career
Santos
In 2002, at the age of eighteen, Robinho signed his first professional contract with Santos in Brazil. He made 24 appearances in his debut season and scoring 1 goal as Santos won the 2002 Campeonato Brasileiro. He reached the final of the 2003 Copa Libertadores with Santos, but lost in the final to Boca Juniors. In 2004, Robinho finished with 21 goals in 37 games and led Santos to win another Campeonato Brasileiro.
His form had brought him to the attention of many European clubs in the summer of 2004, but Robinho remained with Santos after the Brazilian club rejected all offers. However, his form suffered in the 2005 season after his mother, Marina da Silva Souza, was kidnapped by gunmen at her Praia Grande home on November 6, but she was released unharmed six weeks later after a ransom was paid.
Robinho scored nine goals in twelve league games, and his value continued to increase as his talent became more and more apparent to the powers of European football. Santos began to realize it would become increasingly difficult to hold on to their star player. In July 2005, Spanish giants Real Madrid signed Robinho by agreeing to pay a fee equal to 60 percent of the buyout clause in his contract belonging to Santos (€24 million).
Robinho earned the shirt number 10 for Real Madrid, previously worn by Luís Figo. He ended up making 37 appearances and scored 14 goals in his first season. At the start of the 2006–07 campaign, Robinho and David Beckham were considered too flashy and glamorous and rapidly fell out of favor with new footballing regime instituted by Ramon Calderon and carried out by manager Fabio Capello and he spent much of the first few months of the season on the bench, this even after being player of the match in the first Clasico against Barcelona that year. Only after the winter break did Robinho and Beckham find themselves in the starting eleven and they both played crucial roles as Real Madrid won their thirtieth league title. That title was the third league title of Robinho's career.
However, Capello was subsequently fired and Bernd Schuster was appointed as head coach of Real Madrid. Robinho finished with eleven league goals and eight assists for Madrid in the 2007–08 La Liga season as well as four goals during Real Madrid's UEFA Champions League campaign. Robinho then got injured at the beginning of the second half of the season. He didn't recover fully enough to help Madrid against Roma in the Champions League. The week before though, Robinho saved Real Madrid's La Liga title hopes with a clutch two goal performance on 3 March 2008, as Madrid defeated Recreativo away from home. That game kept a resurgent Barcelona at bay and ultimately secured Real Madrid's thirty-first league title and Robinho's fourth.
Robinho was Real Madrid's third highest scorer during his Madrid years, behind strikers Raul and Van Nistelrooy. He was also the player with the second most assists, behind Guti, and the only Madrid player, along with goalkeeper Casillas, to finish in the top ten of the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations for 2007–08.
Ramon Calderon's refused to renew Robinho's contract which was first promised to take place at mid-season then promised to happen at the end of the season. Calderon went back on his word twice, as moves were already underway to use Robinho as trade bait to bring in Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. Robinho only found out about it when the initial deal with Cristiano Ronaldo fell through as a result of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson's outright refusal to bargain with Real Madrid, who then backtracked and tried to finally make a concerted effort to renew Robinho's contract once their attempts to sign Cristiano Ronaldo failed.
Robinho demanded to be traded and a deal with Chelsea looked to be in the making. Chelsea failed to meet Real Madrid's asking price, which eventually led Robinho to choose Manchester City, as his new destination in the Premier League.
Manchester City
Robinho playing for Manchester City
On 1 September 2008, the final day of the Premier League summer transfer window, Robinho completed a €42.5 million (£32.5m) move to Manchester City F.C., with wages in the region of £160,000 per week on a four-year deal. This occurred on the same day the club was bought out by the Arab investment company Abu Dhabi United Group.
He had previously been linked with a transfer to Chelsea, and he had emphasised his desire to play for the London club up to the eve of the transfer. On 27 August, Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said that the club were "confident" that the transaction would go through, and Madrid had also given their consent for the player to leave.
In an interview with The Guardian, Robinho stated that City being a big club and the presence of friends Jô and Elano were incentives for him to join the team. He made his team debut and scored his very first Premier League goal on 13 September 2008, in a 3–1 home defeat to Chelsea. On 26 October, he scored his first Premier League hat-trick against Stoke City, and he scored his first European goal for City in a 3–2 UEFA Cup group stage win over Twente on 6 November. He was given the captain's armband for the match against Hull City, due to Richard Dunne's suspension, which ended in a 2–2 draw.
On 19 April he scored his 13th league goal for Manchester City in the 2–1 win away at Everton on 25 April, Manchester City's first away win since 31 August 2008. The following week, he scored his third consecutive goal in three games, against Blackburn Rovers to help Manchester City to a 3–1 win. Robinho finished the season as City's top goal scorer with 14 and the 4th top scorer in the league.
However, his second season at City did not go anywhere nearly as well. He missed 3 months of the season due to injury, and only played 12 games in total (10 in the Premier League), and scored a mere one goal (against lower league club Scunthorpe in the FA Cup). Due to this, he fell down the pecking order, and sought a move away from the club in January.
Return to Santos on loan
On 28 January 2010, Robinho returned to his home club Santos, due to moving down the pecking order at Manchester City, joining them on a 6 month loan deal. He had publicly stated that at Manchester City he would play every other game, and because of the upcoming World Cup, he wanted to play every game, and so returned to Brazil with Santos after declining a move to São Paulo. On his return to Santos, Robinho scored a backheel against aforementioned admirers São Paulo with five minutes to spare to complete a 2–1 victory for the Peixe. In the final match of his loan deal on 4 August, Robinho helped Santos win the Copa Brasil. Although Santos lost 2–1 to Vitória, they won the tie 3–2 on aggregate to win the competition for the first time in their history. Shortly afterwards Robinho stated that he wanted to remain with Santos rather than return to England. However, Manchester City refused to extend the loan deal and Santos failed to make a transfer bid.
Return to Manchester City
Robinho returned to training with Manchester City in August 2010 but stated that he was seeking a move away from the club before the end of the summer transfer window on 31 August. Fenerbahçe and Besiktas opened transfer negotiations with Manchester City but Robinho rejected a move to Turkish football, declaring that he would rather move to a club in Spain or Italy.
[edit]Milan
On 31 August 2010, Robinho moved to A.C. Milan from Manchester City after signing a four-year contract. He made his debut as a substitute in a 0–2 surprise defeat to newly-promoted Cesena. He started his first game with Milan in their 1-0 win over Genoa. He scored his first goal in injury time against Chievo to make the score 3-1 on October 16, 2010. He continued his goalscoring form with a goal the following week in a Serie A match against S.S.C. Napoli on October 25, 2010.
International career
Robinho playing against Switzerland.
Robinho earned his first cap for Brazil in the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup match on July 13, which Brazil lost 1–0 to Mexico. Although Brazil chose to send their under-23 team, the CONCACAF Gold Cup matches are considered as full international matches by FIFA. He was part of Brazil squad for 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, which Brazil went on to win.
He played in four of Brazil's five matches as a reserve, but finished the tournament goalless. However, Robinho was in top form in the Copa América 2007 a year later. For the tournament, he wore the number 11 shirt, the same number that his childhood hero Romário wore. Robinho scored all four of Brazil's group stage goals via a hat-trick in Brazil's 3–0 group stage match against Chile, and a penalty in a 1–0 win over Ecuador. His last two goals came in a 6–1 quarter-final thrashing of Chile. Robinho reaped the individual honors, finishing as the Golden Boot winner in addition to being named the best player of the tournament. Robinho has one cap as captain and that was a friendly against Algeria on 22 August 2007, due to the absence of regular captains, Lúcio and Gilberto Silva, while Kaká and Ronaldinho were on the bench.
On 28 June 2009, he was a member of the Brazil team that won the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa. He played in every game in the competition, as Brazil defeated the United States 3-2 to win the tournament. On 28 June 2010, he scored against Chile as Brazil won 3-0 to advance to the quarter-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Career statistics
As of 18 October 2010
Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Brazil League Copa do Brasil League Cup South America Total
2002 Santos Série A 30 10 — — — — 30 10
2003 32 9 — — 14 4 46 13
2004 37 21 — — 8 4 45 25
2005 12 6 — — 9 6 21 12
Total Brazil 111 46 — — 31 14 142 60
Spain League Copa del Rey Copa de la Liga Europe Total
2005–06 Real Madrid[30] La Liga 37 8 6 4 — — 8 0 51 12
2006–07 32 6 2 1 — — 7 1 41 8
2007–08 32 11 2 0 — — 6 4 40 15
Total Spain 101 25 10 5 — — 21 5 132 35
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
2008–09 Manchester City Premier League 31 14 0 0 0 0 10 1 41 15
2009–10 10 0 1 1 1 0 — — 12 1
Total England 41 14 1 1 1 0 10 1 53 16
Brazil League Copa do Brasil League Cup South America Total
2010 Santos Série A 2 0 8 6 — — 0 0 122 111
Total Brazil 2 0 8 6 — — 0 0 122 111
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Europe Total
2010–11 AC Milan Serie A 6 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 8 2
Total Italy 6 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 8 2
Career total 260 86 19 12 1 0 64 20 356 123
1Including 12 matches and 5 goals in São Paulo State Tournament 2010
International statistics
As of 2 July 2010
National team Club Season Apps Goals
Brazil Santos 2003 5 0
2004 1 0
2005 11 4
Real Madrid 2005–06 10 1
2006–07 15 6
2007–08 13 2
Manchester City 2008–09 15 6
2009–10 2 0
Santos 2010 7 6
Total 79 25
International appearances and goals
Personal life
In 2009, Robinho married Vivian Guglielmetti. They have a son together named Robson Jr.
In January 2009, Robinho was arrested and bailed following an allegation of serious sexual assault. In April, West Yorkshire police announced that no further action would be taken.
Honours
Club
Santos
Série A (2): 2002, 2004
Campeonato Paulista (1): 2010
Copa do Brasil (1): 2010
Real Madrid
La Liga (2): 2006–07, 2007–08
Supercopa de España (1): 2008
[edit]International
Brazil
FIFA Confederations Cup (2): 2005, 2009
Copa América (1): 2007
[edit]Individual
Copa América: 2007 - Golden Ball (best player of the tournament)
Copa América: 2007 - Golden Shoe (Top scorer)
Bola de Ouro: 2005
World Soccer Young Player of the Year: 2004–05
(source:wikipedia)
