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, 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 Brazilian football legend Pelé.
SantosIn 2002, at the age of eighteen, Robinho signed his first professional contract with Santos, making 24 appearances in his debut season and scoring nine goals as Santos won the 2002 Campeonato Brasileiro. He enjoyed his best attacking season in 2004. He reached the final of Libertadores Cup with Santos, but lost the final against Boca Juniors.
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 a fee equal to 60 percent of the buyout clause in his contract belonging to Santos (€24 million).
Real MadridRobinho 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. Only after the winter break did Robinho find himself in the starting eleven.
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.
Manchester City Robinho (right) warms up prior to his Manchester City debutOn September 1, 2008, the final day of the Premier League summer transfer window, Robinho completed a move to Manchester City for €40.5m,
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, and he had emphasised his desire to play for the London club up to the eve of the transfer. On August 27, Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said that the club were "confident" that the transaction would go through, and Madrid had also given their consent for the player to leave. However, on a frenetic final day of the transfer window, City put bids in for several high profile players, before the club eventually captured Robinho for a British record transfer fee of £32.5 m. Robinho, in an interview, stated his belief that Manchester City is a very big club and revealed that he is friends with players Jô and Elano, and this motivated him to join.
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. He was challenged by a journalist, and hastily corrected himself.
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. brother of up and coming star jamell christian 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 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 "[is] due to human indolence." Pelé also criticized Robinho in his controversial move saying "This boy needs some advice."