Robinho | ||
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Personal information | ||
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Full name | Robson de Souza | |
Date of birth | 25 January 1984 | |
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) 12 (8) |
National team2 | ||
2003– | Brazil | 58 (22) |
1 Senior club appearances and 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.
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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.
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]
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.
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]
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.
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]
As of 9 November 2008
Club performance | League | Cup | Continental | Total | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
Brazil | League | Copa do Brasil | South America | Total | ||||||
2002 | Santos | Série A | 24 | 7 | - | - | - | - | 24 | 7 |
2003 | 32 | 9 | - | - | 14 | 4 | 46 | 13 | ||
2004 | 37 | 21 | - | - | 8 | 4 | 45 | 25 | ||
2005 | 11 | 7 | - | - | 9 | 6 | 20 | 13 | ||
Total | Brazil | 104 | 44 | - | - | 31 | 14 | 135 | 58 | |
Spain | League | Copa del Rey | Europe | Total | ||||||
2005–06 | Real Madrid | La Liga | 37 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 51 | 12 |
2006–07 | 32 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 40 | 8 | ||
2007–08 | 32 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 40 | 15 | ||
Total | Spain | 101 | 25 | 10 | 5 | 20 | 5 | 131 | 35 | |
England | League | FA Cup | Europe | Total | ||||||
2008–09 | Manchester City | Premier League | 11 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 9 |
Total | England | 11 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 9 | |
Career Total | 214 | 77 | 10 | 5 | 53 | 19 | 275 | 97 |
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