When they took over, the Abu Dhabi owners of Manchester City spent no time in spending heavily, and they must sarcastically acknowledge Chelsea for facilitating one transfer. The Premier League team broke their record transfer to pay Real Madrid £32.5 million for Robinho in the 2008 transfer window. Given today’s inflation, even if it would seem like a good deal, that fee would be more than £100m.
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Ex-City forward Robinho reveals that he was eager to play for Chelsea
However, the Real Madrid star didn’t even appear to know where he was heading. It was in the final hours, Chelsea and the Spanish powerhouses reached a deal on a fee. Everything appeared to be in place. Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari appeared ready to reconnect with the Samba star he previously trained when in command of Brazil. That is, until shirts with Robinho’s name on them accidentally started to appear in Chelsea stores. That did not go well with people at Real Madrid HQ. As a result they started working right away to cancel the agreement. Because Chelsea unintentionally ruined their own deal, City was able to swoop in and acquire the forward.
Robinho stated in 2017: “I wanted to go to Chelsea. Scolari told me that I could make the difference for him in the team. However, Real Madrid ended up badly with them, they didn’t like the way that Chelsea sold shirts with my name on them before the deal was done. I am sure it was this that led to the negotiations to fail and it was a case of pride for Real Madrid. They were also reluctant to let me move to a club that was playing in the Champions League that season. Chelsea were, but City weren’t.”
Robinho might face nine-year imprisonment in Brazil
Robinho’s 18-month tenure at City, despite his high-priced arrival, did not go as planned. But on September 13, 2008, in his Premier League debut, he gave his new team the lead against Chelsea of all teams, kicking off his career with a bang. However, Scolari’s team came back, scoring goals from Ricardo Carvalho, Frank Lampard, and Nicolas Anelka to make the score 3-1. The defeat perhaps sow a seed of doubt in Robinho’s mind. But still he have ended his first season with the club with the most goals scored (14). However his second season was ruined by injuries, and he eventually dropped down the pecking order.
The icon played in Italy, Turkey, Brazil and China before a third return to his boyhood club Santos. He finally took retirement in 2020. For his involvement in the group sexual assault that occurred in Milan while he was playing for Serie A team AC Milan, Robinho was found guilty in Italy in 2017. Thus currently Robinho has been given 15 days to challenge an Italian court’s sexual assault arrest and detention verdict. The deadline was set by Brazil’s superior court of justice’s judgement
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