Players Profile

Robinho was born in Parque Bitaru, a poor neighborhood of São Vicente in Santos, where he began playing football when he wa very young. When he was six years old, he was signed to the Beira-Mar, a footballing academy; his team won the championship in his first year. One of his teammates at the time was Marcelo,who was also once Robinho's teammate at Real Madrid. In 1993, at the age of just nine, Robinho scored 73 goals for the Portuários futsal team. He later joined Santos's youth program, which at the time was overseen by Pelé.

In 2002, at eighteen, Robinho signed his first professional contract with Santos, making 24 appearances in his first season and scoring nine goals as Santos won the 2002 Campeonato Brasileiro.

His form brought him to the attention of many European clubs in the summer of 2004, but he remained with Santos after the Brazilian club rejected all offers. However, his form suffered in the 2004-05 season when his mother, Marina da Silva Souza, was kidnapped by gunmen on November 6, she was released 6 weeks later unharmed. He managed only four goals in eight league games. Robinho signed for Real Madrid in July 2005 for 24 million euros

Robinho played his first La Liga game on August 28, 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. Madrid helped Robinho pack on weight, to strengthen him and adapt better to the Spanish game.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. 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 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.

Robinho arrived at Manchester City on September 1st 2008 after a €40.5m move from real madrid also on the same day the club was bought out by Arab investment company Abu Dhabi United Group. He had previously been linked with a transfer to Chelsea but Manchester City managed to snatch hime from their grasp at the 11th hour.

Robinho was caused some mild embarrassment a few days after the move when, during a press conference, he talked of his pleasure at joining Chelsea FC. After a journalist challenged him he quickly corrected himself and said Manchester. He made his debut for Manchester City on 13 September in a 3-1 home defeat against Chelsea, scoring with a 13th-minute free kick.

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.

On October 18, 2007 Robinho and Ronaldinho were at the center 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.

On September 1, 2008 Ramón Calderón, the president of Real Madrid, criticized Robinho revealing that he threatened to end his career to force his exit from the club. He also said the reason for Robinho's departure was " due to human indolence." Pelé has also criticized Robinho in his controversial move saying "This boy needs some advice."