Former Brazil star Robinho is living a very different life than any football fan had envisioned back when he exploded onto the scene at Real Madrid.

Robinho once had the world at his feet and seemed on course to achieve a successful playing career. At the age of 21, he arrived in European football, joining Madrid from Santos in 2005.

Three years later, he made one of the most shocking transfers in Premier League history, joining Manchester City at the start of their Abu Dhabi takeover. That move is now clouded in controversy as the club have been found guilty of financial breaches that started a year after his acquisition.

Robinho never quite lived up to the hype and ended his career in disgrace back at boyhood club Santos in 2020. In the midst of this, he had been convicted of sexual assault by an Italian court for a gang rape of a woman in a Milan nightclub back in 2013 while at AC Milan.

Why Robinho is in Jail

As of October 2026, it's been just over two years since Robinho was put behind bars, and he's now served two of a nine-year prison sentence. Despite the court finding him guilty of sexual assault back in 2017, he didn't serve his sentence in Brazil until March 2024, allowing him to controversially continue his football career for three more years.

Over the years, there were appeals and attempts from the Italian court to extradite Robinho. He played for Brazilian outfit Atletico Mineiro, Turkish outfits Sivasspor and Istanbul Basaksehir before returning to Santos to see out his career in 2020.

Robinho pleaded not guilty, but Italian judges reportedly highlighted wiretaps as critical evidence demonstrating the Brazilian's awareness of the woman's condition and inability to give consent, per Globo. He had been incarcerated in Sao Paulo's Tremembe prison complex which is described as the 'prison of the famous' before moving to a new facility.

Life in Prison: Move, Business Plans And Work

Among the famous names to have been incarcerated at Tremembe is the son of the late great Pele Edinho. He served time at the complex in the late 2010s after being convicted of money laundering.

Another high-profile inmate is Walter Delgatti, a hacker who claimed to have started business plans with Robinho. Spanish outlet Marca reported that Delgatti informed multiple people in prison that they intended to launch a betting company.

Delgatti is serving an eight-year and three-month sentence for hacking Brazil's National Justice Council. Brazilian outlet Veja goes as far as to claim that he has put the business proposal to his lawyer, Ariovaldo Moreira, and the latter confirmed to the publication that conversations had taken place.

While at Tremembe, Robinho also worked and enrolled in various courses, which included a 600-hour electronics course repairing TV's and radios. He is said to have completed all 10 modules in the Work and Citizenship Education programme.

The former Brazil international also took up reading and enrolled in a club alongside helping in the vegetable garden. He is believed to have behaved well during his incarceration and in November last year the Sao Paulo Court accepted a request for a reduction of his sentence by 160 days.

Robinho moved to the Limeira Resocialization Center and his jail mates are individuals without any criminal record and who have been sentenced for less than 10 years. They also have no links to criminal gangs.

There's no word on whether he remains intent on his business venture with Delgatti, but he's had visits from family during his time in jail. During his first year of his sentence, they were only permitted to give him food, clothing, writing materials, books, magazines and games.

The reduction of his sentence means he is now set to be released at the end of 2032 rather than in March 2033. During his time behind bars, his son Robinho Junior has become a professional footballer, joining Serie A club Genoa on loan from Santos earlier this summer.