Biography

Robinho was born in Parque Bitaru, a poor neighbourhood 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 football academy; his team won the championship in his first year.^[1] One of his teammates at the time was Marcelo, currently Robinho's teammate at Madrid. In 1993, at the age of just nine, Robinho scored 73 goals for the Portuários futsal team. He later joined Santos' youth program, which at the time was overseen by Brazilian football legend Pelé.

Club career

In 2002, at the age of eighteen, Robinho signed his first professional contract with Santos Futebol Clube, making 24 appearances in his debut season and scoring nine goals as Santos won the 2002 Campeonato Brasileiro. He enjoyed his best offensive output in 2004, scoring 21 goals in 37 league games and winning another league title with Santos.

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.^[2] 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 60 percent of the buyout clause in his contract belonging to Santos (€24 million).^[3]

Robinho played his first Primera Liga game on 28 August 2005 in a 2-1 win against Cádiz, coming on as a 65th-minute replacement for Thomas Gravesen. He ended up making 37 appearances and scored eight goals in his first season with Los Blancos.

But at the start of the 2006-07 campaign Robinho fell out of favour with new manager Fabio Capello and spent much of the first few months of the season on the bench, but worked his way back into the starting eleven after the winter break. Robinho 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 18 June 2007, which they won 3-1 and in the process claimed their 30th league title, which was also the third of Robinho's career so far.

National team

Robinho earned his first cap for Brazil in the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup final on July 27, which Brazil lost 1-0 to Mexico.

He played in four of Brazil's five 2006 FIFA World Cup matches as a reserve, going scoreless. However, he was in top form in the 2007 Copa América‎ a year later. For the tournament, he wore the number 11 jersey, the same number his childhood hero Romario. 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. Brazil took home the trophy, and Robinho reaped the individual honours, finishing as the Golden Boot winner in addition to being named the best player of the tournament.

On 18 October 2007 Robinho and Ronaldinho were at the centre of a controversy when they were both benched 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 women and that he had asked a security guard for 40 condoms before leaving the nightclub at 5 a.m. He denied the allegations, adding that he was planning to marry his girlfriend, pregnant with their first child, in early 2008.^[4]

Playing Style

Robinho is one of the most talented attacking players to emerge from Brazil in the last few years. His most obvious strengths are his pace and his dribbling skills, which have been likened to the great Garrincha. He is also well known for using his trademark pedalada (or 'step-over') in one-on-one situations against defenders.

Statistics

As of 26 January 2008