Robinho

Robinho
Personal information
Full name	Robson de Souza
Date of birth	25 January 1984 (1984-01-25) (age 25)
Place of birth	São Vicente, Brazil
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Playing position	Second Striker, Left winger
Club information
Current club	Manchester City
Number	10
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2002–2005 2005–2008 2008–	Santos Real Madrid Manchester City	104 (44) 101 (25) 012 0(8)
National team2
2003–	Brazil	058 (22)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:23, 30 November 2008 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 22:45, 12 October 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Robson de Souza (born 25 January 1984 in São Vicente, São Paulo), more commonly known as Robinho, is a Brazilian international footballer who plays for English Premier League club Manchester City F.C. and the Brazilian national team.

Biography

Robinho was born in Parque Bitaru, a poor neighborhood of São Vicente in Santos, where he began playing football at an early age. When he was six years old, he was signed to the Beira-Mar, a local footballing academy; his team won the championship in his first year.^[2] One of his teammates at the time was Marcelo, once Robinho's teammate at Real Madrid. In 1993, at the age of just eight, Robinho played for the Portuários futsal team. He later joined Santos's youth program, which at the time was overseen by Brazilian football legend Pelé.

Club career

Santos

In 2002, at the age of seventeen, Robinho signed his first professional contract with Santos,in Brazil making 24 appearances in his debut season and scoring nine goals 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.

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 2004-05 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.^[3] He managed only four goals in eight league games, but his value nonetheless continued to increase and at the end of the year, Santos were finding it increasingly difficult to hold on to their star player. Finally 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).^[4]

Real Madrid

Robinho played his first La Liga game on August 28, 2004 in a 3-1 win against Cádiz CF, coming on as a 49th-minute replacement for Thomas Gravesen. He ended up making 37 appearances and scored eight goals in his first season.

Robinho playing for Manchester City.

At the start of the 2006-07 campaign, Robinho fell out of favour with new manager Fabio Capello, and he spent much of the first few months of the season on the bench. Only after the winter break did Robinho find himself in the starting eleven. He was given permission by FIFA to skip a Copa América training session with Brazil so he could take part in Madrid's season finale against Mallorca on June 18, 2007, which they won 3-1 and in the process claimed their thirtieth league title, which was also the third of Robinho's career. He contributed eleven goals and fourteen assists for Madrid in the 2007-08 La Liga season. On September 1, 2008, team president Ramón Calderón revealed to the Brazilian media that he had threatened to end Robinho's career in order to force his exit from the club, and claimed that the reason for Robinho's departure was "due to human indolence."^[5]

Manchester City

On September 1, 2008, the final day of the Premier League summer transfer window, Robinho completed a €42.5m (£32.5m) move to Manchester City, making him the current highest paid footballer in the world, earning around £160,000 per week.^[6] This occurred on the same day the club was bought out by the Arab investment company Abu Dhabi United Group.^[7][8] He had previously been linked with a transfer to Chelsea,^[9] and he had emphasised his desire to play for the London club up to the eve of the transfer.^[10] On August 27, Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said that the club were "confident" that the transaction would go through,^[11] and Madrid had also given their consent for the player to leave.^[11]

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 Saturday 13th September 2008, in a 3-1 home defeat to Chelsea. Ironically it was against the team that wanted him. ^[12] On October 26, he scored his first Premier League hat-trick against Stoke City,^[13] and he scored his first European goal for City in a 3-2 UEFA Cup group stage win over FC Twente on November 6. He was given the captain's armband for the match against Hull City due to Richard Dunne's suspension which they drew 2-2.

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.

He played in four of Brazil's five 2006 World Cup matches as a reserve, going scoreless. However, he was in top form in the Copa América 2007 a year later. For the tournament, he wore the number 11 jersey, the same number 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 quarterfinal 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, due to the absence of Lúcio and Gilberto Silva.

On October 18, 2007 Robinho and Ronaldinho were at the center of a controversy when they were both dropped for the upcoming weekend by their league clubs after they had missed their flights from Brazil back to Spain. Reports by Brazilian newspaper O Globo described both players partying with other teammates into the early morning hours at popular Rio de Janeiro nightclub Catwalk, as a celebration of Brazil's 5-0 win over Ecuador the day before. The report alleged that Robinho was seen dancing with pole-dancers and that he had asked a security guard for forty condoms before leaving the nightclub at 5 a.m. In addition to denying the allegations, he claimed that he was planning to marry his pregnant girlfriend in 2008, but he still has yet to do so.^[14]

Statistics

As of 9 November 2008

Honours

Santos

• Campeonato Brasileiro: 2002, 2004

Real Madrid

• La Liga: 2006-07, 2007-08
• Supercopa de España: 2008

International

• FIFA Confederations Cup: 2005
• Copa America: 2007

Individual

• Bola de Ouro: 2004

References

External links

• Robinho career stats at Soccerbase
• Robinho FIFA competition record
• Robinho Profile and Stats - Football Database
• Robinho official website - Official Robinho website

Robinho - Navigation boxes and awards Brazil squad – 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup Runners-up 1 Gomes • 2 Maicon • 3 Luisão • 4 Alex • 5 Adriano • 6 Paulo Almeida • 7 Júlio Baptista • 8 Kaká • 9 Ewerthon • 10 Diego • 11 Robinho • 12 Alexandre Negri • 13 Coelho • 14 André Bahia • 15 Nilmar • 16 Nadson • 17 Carlos Alberto • 18 Thiago Motta • Coach: Ricardo Gomes Brazil squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup Winners (2nd Title) 1 Dida • 2 Maicon • 3 Lúcio • 4 Roque Júnior • 5 Emerson • 6 Gilberto • 7 Robinho • 8 Kaká • 9 Adriano • 10 Ronaldinho • 11 Zé Roberto • 12 Marcos • 13 Cicinho • 14 Juan • 15 Luisão • 16 Léo • 17 Gilberto Silva • 18 Juninho • 19 Renato • 20 Júlio Baptista • 21 Oliveira • 22 Edu • 23 Gomes • Coach: Parreira Brazil squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Dida • 2 Cafu • 3 Lúcio • 4 Juan • 5 Emerson • 6 Roberto Carlos • 7 Adriano • 8 Kaká • 9 Ronaldo • 10 Ronaldinho • 11 Zé Roberto • 12 Rogério Ceni • 13 Cicinho • 14 Luisão • 15 Cris • 16 Gilberto • 17 Gilberto Silva • 18 Mineiro • 19 Juninho • 20 Ricardinho • 21 Fred • 22 Júlio César • 23 Robinho • Coach: Parreira Brazil squad – Copa América 2007 Winners (8th Title) 1 Helton • 2 Maicon • 3 Alex • 4 Juan • 5 Mineiro • 6 Gilberto • 7 Elano • 8 Gilberto Silva • 9 Vágner Love • 10 Diego • 11 Robinho • 12 Doni • 13 Daniel Alves • 14 Alex Silva • 15 Naldo • 16 Kléber • 17 Josué • 18 Fernando • 19 Júlio Baptista • 20 Anderson • 21 Afonso Alves • 22 Fred • Coach: Dunga Preceded by Alex Bola de Ouro Winner 2004 Succeeded by Carlos Tévez