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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Robson de Souza | ||
| Date of birth | 25 January 1984 | ||
| Place of birth | São Vicente, Brazil | ||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)[1] | ||
| Playing position | Left winger / Second striker | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Santos (on loan from Manchester City) |
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| Number | 7 | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2002–2005 | Santos | 111 | (46) |
| 2005–2008 | Real Madrid | 101 | (25) |
| 2008– | Manchester City | 41 | (14) |
| 2010– | → Santos (loan) | 5 | (4) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2004 | Brazil U23 | 8 | (3) |
| 2003– | Brazil | 72 | (20[2]) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 28 May 2009 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). |
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Róbson de Souza (born 25 January 1984 in São Vicente, São Paulo), commonly known as Robinho, is a Brazilian footballer, who currently plays for Brazilian Série A club Santos on loan from Manchester City, and the Brazilian national team.
Robinho was personally picked by Pelé as his heir apparent at only 15 years of age[3] and went on to lead Santos to their first Campeonato Brasileiro title since Pelé himself played for the same legendary Brazilian club.[4] Since then he has won another title with Santos, two more with Real Madrid, one Copa América title with Brazil and two Confederations Cups, also Brazil.
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In 2002, at the age of seventeen, Robinho signed his first professional contract with Santos in Brazil. He made 24 appearances in his debut season and scoring 10 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. In 2004, Robinho finished with 21 goals and led Santos to another title.
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.[5]
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).[6]
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 Classico 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[7] and eight assists[8] 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.[9] 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 didn't meet Real Madrid's asking price, which eventually led Robinho to choose Manchester City, as his new destination in the English Premier League.[citation needed]
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, with wages in the region of £160,000 per week.[10] This occurred on the same day the club was bought out by the Arab investment company Abu Dhabi United Group.[11][12]
He had previously been linked with a transfer to Chelsea,[13] and he had emphasised his desire to play for the London club up to the eve of the transfer.[14] On 27 August, Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said that the club were "confident" that the transaction would go through,[15] and Madrid had also given their consent for the player to leave.[15]
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.[16] On 26 October, he scored his first Premier League hat-trick against Stoke City,[17] 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.
On 28 January 2010, Robinho returned to his home club Santos in a 6-month loan deal.[18] He had publicly stated that at Manchester City he would play every other game, and because this was a World Cup Year, he wanted to play every game, and so returned to Brazil with Santos after declining a move to São Paulo.[19] On his return to Santos, Robinho scored a backheel against aforementioned admirers São Paulo with 5 minutes to spare to complete a 2-1 victory for the Peixe.[20][21]
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 jersey, 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, including the final against the United States, which Brazil came back from two goals deficit to eventually win the game 3–2.[22]
| 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[23][24] | 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[23] | 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 | — | — | 6 | 1 | ||
| Total | England | 41 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 47 | 16 | |
| Career Total | 247 | 85 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 62 | 20 | 319 | 115 | ||
In 2009, Robinho married Vivian Guglielmetti. [30]
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