ROBINHO
Full name: Robson de Souza Nickname: Robinho Date of birth: 25⁄01-1984
Place of Birth: São Vicente, São Paulo State
Nationality: Brazilian
Height: 1.75 m
Position: Forward
National team appearances: 70
Goals for national team: 19
Debut for national team: Brazil vs Mexico, 2003 Gold Cup final
First goal for national team: February 9 2005 vs Hong Kong
Honors: Confederation Cup 2005, 2009, Copa America 2007, Campeonato Brasileiro 2002, 2004, La Liga: 2006-07, 2007-08, Supercopa de España 2008. Personal honors: Top goal scorer at the 2007 Copa America (6 goals), Bola de Ouro 2004
Robson de Souza, or Robinho, is one of the greatest talents to come out of Brazil in recent times. Born in São Vicente, a city near Santos, he was discovered at a very young age and was still a just kid when he made his debut as a professional footballer. By the time he was 18 he was the star of the Santos side that won the Brazilian league in 2002.
Robinho’s life with a football at his feet – or a futsal ball, as it was at the time – began at the Beira-Mar sports club. The club has now disappeared and given way to a sports complex bearing his name, but it was there that Robinho first delighted fans and exasperated opponents with his disconcerting dribbles.
At the age of nine, he scored 73 goals in one season of futsal and, in 1994, his coach Roberto Antônio dos Santos (better known simply as Betinho) took him to play on a full-size pitch at the Associação Atlética dos Portuários, a dockworkers’ club. From there, he quickly moved to the Santos youth academy.
As always, the lad at his side was his faithful teammate, Diego. At first, Robinho was in his teammate’s shadow. When Santos scouts went to see the pair play for the first time it was Diego who caught their eye. But Robinho gradually blossomed and after the two youngsters helped Santos to the São Paulo state Under-17 title in 2001, they were both promoted to the first-team squad.
Santos fans couldn’t believe their luck at seeing two such stars appearing on the scene at the same time. Robinho even won the personal blessing of Pele, who was responsible for coordinating Santos' junior teams at the time.
It was in 2002 that Robinho’s fame began to grow beyond Santos and he soon became known nationwide. In less than a year, he had gone from being a promising youngster to one of the big stars of the Brazilian game. In that year’s national championship race, he helped Santos win the title for the first time in 18 years.
In the final against Santos’s biggest rival Corinthians, he reined supreme. In addition to scoring a goal, he delighted fans with his trademark stepovers. The following year he took Santos to the final of the Libertadores Cup and a year after that he helped them to another Brazilian league title, delighting fans across the country as he helped to bring the joy back to football.
After conquering Brazil, it was time to seek new challenges. It was his former coach at Santos, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, who first opened the door to Europe by signing him for Real Madrid, one of the best known clubs in the world, where he was handed the No. 10 shirt.
For his country, Robinho is still practically a novice. However, following Brazil’s disappointing performance at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where he was given little chance to show what he can do, he has now become one of the regular strikers in the national team squad and should certainly have a key part to play at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
On September 1, 2008, Robinho completed a €42.5m move to Manchester City.
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.
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.
Personal preferences
- Dream car: It doesn't matter, as long as it gets me where I want to go
- Favourite colour:Black
- Favourite film:The Scorpion King
- Favourite food:Feijoada (a Brazilian stew)
- Favourite holiday destination:It doesn’t matter where, as long as it’s with my family
- Favourite music:Pagode (a type of Brazilian samba music)
- Favourite other sport:I don't have one. I just like kicking the ball about with friends
- Favourite team:Santos FC
- Greatest pleasure:Being with family
- Heroes:Off the pitch - my dad, on the pitch - Ronaldo
