Robinho

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Robinho

File:Robinhoconelmadrid0607.jpg
Personal information
Full name	Robson de Souza
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Winger, Second Striker
Team information
Current team	Real Madrid
Number	10
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17:24, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Robson de Souza (born January 25 1984 in São Vicente, São Paulo), nicknamed Robinho, is a Brazilian footballer currently playing for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid C.F. and the Brazilian national team.

Biography

Robinho was born in Parque Bitaru, a poor neighborhood 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 footballing academy; his team won the championship in his first year. One of his teammates at the time was Marcelo, currently 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' 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. 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).

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

At the start of the 2006-07 campaign, Robinho fell out of favor with new manager Fabio Capello, and he 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 thirtieth league title, which was also the third of Robinho's career. He currently has ten goals and eleven assists for Madrid in the 2007-08 season and is the third leading scorer in the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League with four goals and three assists.

National team

Robinho playing against Switzerland

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 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, due to the absence of Lúcio and Gilberto Silva.

On 18 October 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.

Statistics

As of 10 March 2008

All-Time Club Performance

Club	Season	Domestic League		Domestic Cup		Continental Competition		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Santos	2002	24	7	-	-	-	-	24	7
	2003	32	9	-	-	14	4	46	13
	2004	37	21	-	-	8	4	45	25
	2005	11	7	-	-	9	6	20	13
	Total	104	44	-	-	31	14	135	58
Real Madrid	05-06	37	8	6	4	8	0	51	12
	06-07	32	6	2	1	6	1	40	8
	07-08	24	10	2	0	6	4	28	14
	Total	93	24	9	5	18	5	119	34
	Career Totals	197	68	9	5	48	17	254	92

External links

• Profile - Official Real Madrid website
• Robinho Profile and Stats - Football Database
• Robinho official website - Official Robinho website