Brazilian attacker Robinho had many spells at Santos during his football career which  has stalled as a result of a prison sentence for rape. Robinho was born in Sao Vicente, Sao Paulo and be played a lot of futsal which helped to develop his dribbling and acceleration skills.

Robinho began his professional football career at Santos at the age of just 18 in 2002. At the time, he was widely regarded as one of the most talented young players in Brazilian football. The attacker ended his debut season at Santos with one goal in 24 appearances as Santos won the 2002 Campeonato Brasileiro. Robinho was part of the Santos squad that reached the Copa Libertadores final before they were beaten by Argentine football outfit Boca Juniors. He was at the heart of another Campeonato Brasileiro win in 2004 netting 21 goals in 37 games in the process. It was the second Campeonato Brasileiro for Santos in three seasons.

A lot of European teams began to register interest in signing Robinho from Santos in the summer of 2004 with his form for the Brazilian club. In the end, Santos turned down all the offers from the interested European teams to keep Robinho at the club. His form suffered a great deal in 2005 after his mother was kidnapped at her home. She was later released after a ransom was paid.

Santos would later realised that it is almost impossible to keep Robinho at the club after he regained his form on the back of the kidnapping incident involving his mother as revealed earlier. The good form brought him a return of nine goals in 12 league games.

In the summer of 2005, Santos accepted the sale of Robinho to Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid. 13-time European champions Real Madrid paid €24m for the player.