About Robinho

Robson de Souza, or better known as “Robinho”, is one of the elite strikers in the world. What he lacks in size he makes up for in quick speed, tricks, attacking, and dribbling skills. Robinho’s natural talent has brought him success since the age of nine, when he scored 73 goals in indoor football with the youth club Portuarios. While playing with the Santos, his first professional team he took them to the national championship, the Campeonata Brazil in 2002. In 2004 he had another record season with the team scoring 25 goals in 45 games. In 2007, while playing in the Copa America, Robinho was named the top scorer and the overall best player in the tournament. He scored six goals during the whole tournament, leading his country to a win over Argentina in the finally.

Robinho and the great Brazilian football legend Pele have been acquaintances ever since Robinho was nine years old. In fact, it was Pele who first introduced Robinho into professional Brazilian football, when he brought Robinho into the Santos FC youth dorms. Pele tried to make him bigger by providing him with a diet of protein and carbohydrates. In 2002 Robinho played for Santos and the Brazilian national team, the same two teams which Pele played for in the sixties. Pele even went on to label Robinho as “my successor”.

Background

Robson de Souza, also known as Robinho (“Little Robin”) was born on January 25, 1984 in São Vicente, Brazil in an impoverished area of the city. At the age of six, he started playing league soccer on the youth Soccer Club Beira-Mar, and immediately gained wide recognition by the scouts. In 1993, at the age of nine, he gained even more attention when he started playing for the indoor soccer team, the Portuarios, where he scored a total of 73 goals. He was then invited to play for the youth program of the Santos that was overseen by the great Pele. When he turned 18 he became a starter for the professional Santos team. After playing with them for three years and taking them to two championships he signed a contract with Real Madrid, where he currently plays.

Club Football

FC Santos 2002-2003: Robinho’s first year as a professional soccer player, was very successful. Along with team mate Diego, he took the team to a national victory in the Campeonata Brazil. He appeared in twenty four games and scored nine goals during his first season.

2004: Robinho continued his streak of success and in 2004 he led team Santos by scoring 21 goals in 37 league games. Even with the loss, of Diego and Renato to Porto and Sevilla, in the summer of 2004 he was able to take the team to a second champion season. Due to his success in Brazil, European soccer organizations had wanted to buy him out.

Real Madrid 2005: It was a rough year on Robinho, being traded from the Santos team that he began his professional soccer career with to Real Madrid, for a small fee of 31 million Euros. However, this trade proved to be a positive for both the team and the high profile player. He scored 8 goals in 37 appearances in the Spanish premier division, helping the team to achieve the number two position in the league. His success did not continue into the UEFA competition, starting in only seven games and not scoring a single goal during the whole tournament. 2006/2007: Robinho started the year out in an awkward position. Due his superfluous performance in the world cup he was expected to start. However the new manager, Fabio Capello's game plane, did not accompany Robinho’s playing style. As a result of this, he was forced to spend twelve games on the sidelines as a substitute. However, after the winter break, the relationship between Fabio Capello and Robinho improved and the Fabio fit Robinho better into his style of soccer. From that point on Robinho finished of the season starting in the remaining twenty games and scoring six goals.

International Football

Brazil Robinho made his first appearance in the world stage in 2003 when he played in the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup which Brazil ended up loosing 1-0 to Mexico. He did not make a big impression on the game.

In 2006 Robinho made his second appearance on the greatest stage in soccer, the FIFA World Cup in Germany.  Although he played in every game, he did not get a chance to spend much time on the field since, he was a substitute. The only game which Robinho started in was in the final against Japan. All throughout the FIFA World Cup he remained scoreless.  

His greatest success came in 2007 when he led the Copa America in goals and got the Golden Boot award. In the first game against Chile, which was in Group B along with Brazil he scored a hat trick, which gave Brazil a 3-0 win. One of those goals came from a penalty kick. In the next Group stage match against Ecuador he scored the only goal of the game on a penalty kick, which made Brazil on win against Ecuador. In the Copa quarter finals he scored two goals against Chile, which brought his total to 6 goals, the most out of any player in the whole tournament.

International Goals

Awards and Honors

FC Santos

• Campeonata Brazil first place: 2002
• Campeonata Brazil first place: 2004
• Copa America Champion: 2007
• Golden Boot award: 2007

Brazil

• CONCACAF Gold Cup 2003: runner-up
• Copa America Champion first place: 2007

Personal Awards

Career Statistics

M = Matches, G = Goals, A = Assists

Personal Info

Robinho divides his free time between Brazil, where most of his family lives and Madrid where he plays. He enjoys spending time with his family since he rarely gets to see them. He recently had a baby boy, with his girlfriend/ fiancé and developed a ritual of sucking his thumb every time he scores a goal in dedication to his son. He also considers his mother to be one on the most valuable people in his life and tries to see her as much as possible.

In 2004 his mother got kidnapped by some hoodlums. She was held captive for two months and at one point there was even rumours spreading that the kidnappers had killed her. However, those rumours ended up being false and after negotiations, she was returned home safely. Robinho had to pay a large sum of money for her to be freed.

Wife / Girlfriend

Robinho is a player and like many guys his age does not take seriously the notion of commitment. He enjoy going out and flirting with many women. After a victory to Ecuador, a fellow team mate and he went out to party, and asked the bouncer to provide him with 40 condoms to be used later in the evening. Even though he enjoys living the playboy lifestyle there are still rumours pending, however, not confirmed that he is engaged to his girlfriend Vivian Guglielmetti. According to the Real Madrid club website, on December 18th 2007, Vivian gave birth to a baby boy, which he named Robson Junior. After finding out about the news, Robinho started sucking his thumb after every goal that he scores in order to dedicate it to his new son.

Sponsors

• Nike

Important Links

Official player site

• http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=65059625

References

• http://www.Robinho-soccer.com/
• http://www.Robinhoonline.co.uk/Robinho.htm
• http://worldsoccer.about.com/od/strikers/p/Robinho.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Am%C3%A9rica_2007#Final
• http://www.123football.com/players/r/Robinho/index.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinho
• http://info-Robinho.blogspot.com/
• http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team?id=86&cc=5901
• http://www.realmadrid-club.net/2007/12/18/Robinho-becomes-a-father-is-he-really-married-in-the-first-place.html
• http://www.futebolthebrazilianwayoflife.com/view.asp?ArticleId=9