Robson De Souza or familiarly known as Robinho is a Brazilian footballer who appeared in the decade of the 2000s. Robinho was among the potential young players at the time. Good at dribbling, sharp in front of goal, and good at creating chances, that’s the right phrase to describe the player born on 25 January 1984.
Robinho has been good at cultivating the round leather since he was a child. “He is my successor,” the sentence came out of the mouth of the Brazilian legend, Pelé in 1999, when Robinho was still 15 years old. A sentence sign of appreciation for Robinho’s ability on the pitch.
Since he first met, Pele was impressed with Robinho’s talent and continued to guide the little boy to grow. Until exactly the age of 18 years, Robinho officially signed a contract with Santos thanks to Pele’s help.
Pelé increasingly believes that Brazil has found “his new self” when Robinho led Santos to win the 2002 Brazilian Serie A, which he then repeated in 2004. Incidentally, Santos is also a club that raised Pelé’s name. Suitable already. Playing together in Santos, in the attacker’s position, with a similar playing style.
Thanks to a brilliant performance with Santos, Robinho also won many individual awards. Like Bola De Prata, Bola De Ouro and entered the best South American team for three consecutive years, 2002 to 2004. Besides, he has also strengthened the senior Brazilian national team at the age of 19 years.
In 2005, Robinho had made a scene after his move from Santos FC to Real Madrid lasted so long and tough. Santos wants to keep one of his best players, while Madrid wants to gather the world soccer stars at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Los Blancos’ wishes are in line with Robinho’s wishes. The player wants to emit bright light in mainland Europe. Real Madrid also prepared 24 million euros or around Rp 380 billion for young footballers who were then still aged 21 years.
Because of the special talent possessed, Robinho was even given the number 10 shirt that was previously used by Luís Figo. Not just any player can wear number 10, considering that the number is very identical to the world’s top footballers.
At Real Madrid, the presence of Brazilian coach Wanderlei Luxemburgo is expected to accelerate Robinho’s adaptation process.
In the first week of the 2005/06 La Liga season, Robinho immediately got his debut. He entered in the 66th minute replacing Thomas Gravesen. Robinho’s first goal arrived in the fourth week when Real Madrid hosted Athletic Bilbao.
In his first season in Madrid, Robinho has gone through 51 matches and scored 12 goals in all competitions. This seemed to provide a sign that he would be an important part of Los Galacticos. In the next two seasons, Robinho remains a mainstay of Real Madrid with more than 40 appearances each season.
Robinho’s bright light towards The Next Pele was increasingly visible when he strengthened Brazil in the 2007 Copa America held in Venezuela. Appearing impressive, Robinho brought Samba out as champion, he also won the top scorer and best player.
The 2007/08 season, Robinho ended with 11 goals and 8 assists in La Liga, and an additional 4 goals in European Champions League competition. However, his career did not go smoothly after suffering an injury. Robinho must rest for a long time.
After returning to play, Robinho was unable to display his best game. When he got a contract extension offer, he refused because at that time Madrid was being exposed to the issue of bringing in megastars from Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo.
After deciding not to accept the offer, Robinho flew to England to join Manchester City. In 2008, this petite player officially set foot in the city of Manchester and signed a contract for the next four years.
Please also note, at that time, Robinho also had approached Chelsea, even Peter Kenyon as director of Chelsea had said that Robinho was almost certain to join the Blues. However, right on the closing day Robinho suddenly moved towards the blue side of Manchester.
His first season in the land of Queen Elizabeth, Robinho scored 14 goals in 31 league games, which we think is a good start for a player who is the first time to feel the atmosphere of the English League.
His second season at Manchester City didn’t work. Robinho spent three months out of injury and only appeared in 12 matches overall.
In addition to injuries, Robinho also often acting up, his second season in England was much decorated with nightlife, to make Manchester City management exhausted his patience and lent Robinho to the club early in his career, namely Santos in early 2010.
Even at his old club, Robinho couldn’t do his best. Based on The Transfermarkt data, during his loan spell, Robinho only appeared twice in the League. This makes Santos return Robinho to Manchester City. However, he seems to have no place anymore in Etihad.
After that, Robinho was brought by AC Milan. What happened to Robinho in Milan is almost the same as what happened to his first two clubs on the Blue Continent. The 2010/11 season, which was his first season in Italy, went smoothly, 14 goals in 34 matches is a good record.
However, in his second season in AC Milan, Robinho did not become a major player. The injury that approached him forced him to pull over or the incompatibility of tactics of the coach with Robinho’s position forced him to become a bench warmer.
After being injured again for the umpteenth time, Robinho terminated his contract with AC Milan and decided to return to Santos. His adventures after escaping from Milan tend to be irregular. Robinho seemed to lose direction and had several club changes.
He was sentenced to prison after being involved in a rape case against a 22-year-old Albanian girl. After the negotiations, Robinho reportedly was free from the case.
Guangzhou Evergrande, Atletico Mineiro and Sivasspor became the club Robinho defended from 2015 to 2019. Together with the three clubs, until the 2018/19 season ended, Robinho created a total of 53 goals from 150 matches. Not a bad record indeed, but if you remember the team that was defended is not a famous team, of course, it becomes an ordinary thing.
Currently, Robinho is undergoing a season together with Istanbul Baseksehir, a club in the Turkish league.
At the national team level, after 2010, Robinho’s name rarely appears in the list of Brazilian players. Unlike before where he often appeared defending samba at least 10 times each year. However, Robinho can collect 100 caps and create 28 goals.
Robinho’s career as the next Pele is indeed far from expectations. However, Robinho is not one of the wonder-kids who failed, nor was he a bud before developing. However, the twilight of a career that was very far down from the start of his fame on the gridiron proved that Pelé’s predictions had missed.
