Robinho

Robson de Souza (born 25 January 1984 in São Vicente, São Paulo, São Paulo (state)), nicknamed Robinho (Little Robson), is a Brazilian Football (soccer) currently playing for Real Madrid and the Brazilian national football team. Robinho has earned praise for his expert use of the step over and field speed.

Youth programs

He was born in Parque Bitaru, a poor neighborhood of São Vicente in Santos, where he began playing football (soccer) early. At six, he was signed to the Beira-Mar, a local escolinha. He and his team took the championship in his first year. While playing at the Beira-Mar, Robinho was claimed to look just like his teammate Marcelo Vieira da Silva Júnior, so the Brazilian fans nicknamed them "the twins".

In 1993, at the age of nine, Robinho drew attention by scoring 73 goals for the Portuários futsal team. Robinho joined the Santos youth program, which at the time was overseen by Brazilian football legend Pelé. Pelé brought Robinho into the Santos FC youth dorms, where he received his first regular schedule of three meals a day.

Club career

Robinho's array of tricks and sublime dribbling skills brought him to the attention of Santos Futebol Clube- a club with a glorious history which had previously fielded the likes of Pelé, Pepe, Dorsal, Mengalvio, and Coutinho in the sixties- for whom he then signed. Upon arrival he was warned by many people to reduce the amount of tricks he did in order to humilliate opponents but lucky for his fans he didn't take heed of this advice and then proceeded to make the pedalada (step-over) his trademark move.

Robinho then won his first accolade in the famous white shirt when he was proclaimed under 17 São Paulo champion. Robinho signed professional forms with Santos in 2002. In his first senior season he went on to make 24 appearances in which he scored 9 goals. The crowning glory in this season and the moment that confirmed his place a star in Santos was during the Brazilian championship game when he performed six step-overs in the space of twenty metres without touching the ball that confused defender Rogerio that much that when he finally moved the ball Rogerio brought him down earning Santos a penalty. To add to the moment Robinho played a decisive part in the other two Santos goals in the game. This was his first big title in football and most would say the first big steps he took to becoming a big player.

In the 2003 season he then made 32 appearances as he made himself a valuable first team player along with others such as Diego Ribas da Cunha, Elano Blumer and Renato Dirnei Florêncio in these four santos had some of the most sought after young talents in the Brazil. Then in 2004 he had his best season to date scoring 21 goals in 37 league games and in the process became the stand out player in the team also due to the departures of Diego and Renato in the summer to Porto and Sevilla respectively. It was also this season that he won his second title for Santos.

Robinho's form in both domestic and international competition had brought him to the attention of many big European clubs in the summer of 2004 but Santos' reluctancy to sell coupled with personal problems led to Robinho staying in Brazil for another season. In the 2005 season he managed only 4 goals in eight league games.

During the summer of 2005 Santos were finding it increasingly hard to keep their prized asset and under relenting pressure he was sold to Real Madrid for a price of around $30 million.

His first season in Madrid was an extremely turbulent time with the extremely impatient and hard to please Bernabeu crowd expecting things from the start and an unstable board room coupled with managerial comings and goings made this a forgettable time. In this season he made 37 league appearances scoring 8 goals and at times did show flashes of brilliance. Said by Pele in a press conference in Madrid, Spain.

At the start of the 2006/07 season a lot was expected of Robinho after some brilliant cameo appearances during the summers World Cup in Germany but when the season started Robinho unexpectedly found himself out of favour with new manager Fabio Capello and spent much of the first few months looking on from the sidelines. After the winter break Robinho started to play his way into the manager's plans and his improvement in form coincided with an improvement in the team's play which lead Real Madrid to the top position in La Liga with three games left in the season. Before the final game of the season, Robinho was granted permission by FIFA to play for his club and delay the call-up to train with Dunga's Brazilian national squad ahead of the summer's Copa America. Real Madrid went on to win the La Liga title with Robinho serving as a crucial staple of Madrid's success.

National team

In 2003, Robinho was called up to join the prestigious ranks of the Brazilian national football team. His first international appearance came in the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup final, where despite his team's loss, Robinho displayed his talent on the international stage.

Robinho played in each game of the 2006 FIFA World Cup group stage, but only started in the final game against Japan national football team.

Robinho finished as top scorer in Copa América 2007‎ with Copa América 2007 Scorers six goals. Wearing the number 11 jersey, he scored a hat trick in Brazil's Group B match against Chile national football team, the first from the penalty spot, which gave Brazil a 3-0 win. He scored again on a penalty in the next Group stage match Ecuador national football team which saw Brazil through on a 1-0 scoreline. He also scored two goals against Chile in the Quarter Finals to take his goal scoring tally to 6 goals. Brazil won the tournament, and with his six goals, Robinho won the Top scorer award. He was also appointed best player of the tournament. Robinho captained Brazil in the match vs Algeria due to the absent of Lúcio ,the captain, and Gilberto Silva ,the vice-captain.

Media coverage

Like many talented young Brazilian footballers, Robinho has been compared to his nation's great players by both fans and the sports media. Robinho's footwork and mercurial speed has many believing that he can carry on the mantle of Pelé, Garrincha and Romario in Brazilian football.

As of late, fans have also begun to foment a potential rivalry between Robinho and Argentinian striker Lionel Messi, who has been hailed as a wonderkid in football, and therefore a natural counterpart to Robinho. Contrasts between the two include the fact that they each represent rival Latin American football powerhouses (Brazil and Argentina); they play opposite each other in the premiere rival clubs of La Liga (Robinho for Real Madrid and Messi for FC Barcelona); and interestingly, there are the comparisons to the greatest living footballers in the world (Messi has been hailed by Argentinian fans and media as "the new Maradona" and Robinho with Pelé). He has never gone on record to say his club football desires, yet there has been speculation that he would like to go to either Serie A or Premier League in the future.