In Sao Paulo state’s so-called “prison of the famous”, he is officially known as “Inmate Robson de Souza”. Yet, within the confines of Tremembe Penitentiary II, there can be no mistaking the disgraced former ‘galáctico’ that is Robinho.

You simply cannot hide behind your full birth name if you have sunk from being anointed as the heir apparent to Pele by the man himself, and earning 100 caps for Brazil, to being locked up for nine years for a sickening nightclub gang rape.

There is an irony behind the prison service’s spurning of the name that became infamous enough for Robinho to be sent to Tremembe over a crime for which it took more than a decade to make him pay. It is also a stark reminder of the magnitude of one of football’s most spectacular downfalls, one unlikely to see the 40-year old receive any VIP treatment while serving his sentence.

That became clear during his first Christmas since being jailed when he was not among a reported 117 of the prison’s inhabitants let out for 11 days to spend time with loved ones. Confirming he had been ineligible for the scheme, the state prison service said: “Inmate Robson de Souza is serving a sentence under a closed regime and is not entitled to temporary release, a benefit granted by the judiciary only to semi-open regime inmates.”

Those freed were said to have included one of the country’s most notorious murderers, Lindemberg Alves, sentenced to almost 99 years in prison in 2012 after shooting dead a 15-year-old former girlfriend he held hostage for 100 hours. Tremembe’s other ‘celebrity’ inmates reportedly feature a woman who stabbed her husband 56 times, a man who killed his own daughter, and a former doctor who abused 39 sedated patients.

As well as denying Robinho the chance to spend the festive period with wife Vivian and their three children, the prison service also said: “Tremembe Penitentiary II, which holds Robson, will not be holding any special programmes for the end-of-year celebrations.”

Given how he ended up at Tremembe, sympathy over the privileges denied the former Real Madrid and Manchester City player is likely to be in short supply. Especially in a country where football is all but a religion and where most young boys would give almost anything to wear its football team’s iconic yellow jersey. Robinho is a Brazilian who had it all and simply threw it away.

Born in the slums of the same Sao Paulo state where he is now behind bars, his childhood was spent honing the prodigious skills that saw him tipped for greatness long before he had even turned professional. When he did, he almost immediately lived up to Pele’s prediction about a 12-year-old at former club Santos when they were crowned Brazilian champions for the first time since the three-time World Cup winner’s heyday.

That 2002 title win in 18-year-old Robinho’s first season – he scored a penalty in the final – and their runners-up finish in the following summer’s Copa Libertadores put him firmly in the sights of Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez’s galácticos project. He led Santos to another domestic title in the 2004 season, the climax of which saw his mother kidnapped at gunpoint and only released six weeks later after he agreed to pay a ransom.

He also became engulfed in a remarkable tug-of-war between his club and Real, who even hired his manager at Santos, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, as their new boss. In a saga reminiscent of the Brazilian government declaring Pele an official national treasure to stop him moving overseas, the country’s football federation blocked Robinho’s own exit over Real’s refusal to pay what was a $50 million (£30 million) release clause in full.

Robinho eventually signed for the Spaniards in the summer of 2005, after the club said he and his agent had waived their right to 40 per cent of his transfer fee. The £18 million man replaced Luis Figo, taking the original galáctico’s No 10 jersey in a squad featuring Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and David Beckham. But his first season ended in failure after Real finished 12 points behind La Liga champions Barcelona, who also won the European Cup. And he was a peripheral figure at his maiden World Cup as Brazil’s defence of the trophy they won four years earlier was ended by a Zidane-inspired France.

Robinho initially faced a fight for his place in the Real team following Fabio Capello’s arrival as manager, but went on to play a key role as they won their first Spanish title for four years. This and his player-of-the-tournament performances that helped Brazil win that summer’s Copa América, arguably, when he was aged 23, were to remain his crowning achievements.

By then, unsavoury allegations about his lifestyle had already begun to emerge, including over what was to prove a fatal penchant for women and drink. It culminated in him being fined by Real in October 2007 for reporting back late from international duty after partying in the wake of Brazil’s 5-0 victory over Ecuador. He was forced to deny reports he had asked minders to pop to the chemist to buy 40 condoms.

This did not prevent Real completing back-to-back league triumphs under new manager Bernd Schuster, but Champions League glory eluded both club and player. His future was further thrown into doubt when Real president Ramón Calderón, who had succeeded Pérez shortly after Robinho joined, became fixated on signing Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. That led the Brazilian to claim he had been touted as a makeweight in such a deal.

What instead transpired was one of the most dramatic deadline-day transfers in Premier League history as Robinho joined City on the same day as their September 1, 2008, takeover by Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group. Robinho had appeared certain to sign for Chelsea, before the newly minted City swooped with a British record fee of £32.5 million.

The move to a club of City’s then relatively lowly stature – reportedly completed without Robinho undergoing a medical or even fully understanding the personal terms of his contract – provoked anger and disbelief in Brazil. Santos all but disowned the forward, while even Pele turned on him, saying: “Chelsea are lucky. This is a boy who needs serious counselling. In my view, he has been badly advised.” Robinho did not help himself when he had to be reminded of who he had joined after saying: “On the last day, Chelsea made a great proposal and I accepted.”

He immediately made amends by opening the scoring on his debut against the west Londoners but City went on to crash to a 3-1 defeat. And it soon became clear he was not up to the physical demands of the Premier League. In January that year, he went AWOL from a City training camp in Tenerife, returning to Brazil for what he said was “a family matter”. Chillingly, in light of his subsequent conviction, he was arrested upon his return over allegations of a serious sexual assault at a Leeds nightclub days before his walkout. He “strenuously” denied any wrongdoing and the Crown Prosecution Service went on rule no action should be taken. He did not score in the two months it took for the case to be dropped but still finished the season as City’s top scorer.

That season was to prove Robinho’s only full one in England as he increasingly began to resemble an expensive flop and he was dropped for the game that triggered the club’s infamously brutal sacking of manager Mark Hughes. With the World Cup looming the following summer and no guarantee of game time under new manager Roberto Mancini, Robinho returned to Santos on loan, helping them win the Copa do Brasil for the first time. But his bid to join the greats of Brazilian football by lifting the biggest prize of all was dashed in the World Cup quarter-finals. Robinho opened the scoring against eventual runners-up Netherlands only for Brazil to lose 2-1.

He returned to training with City but it was clear he was not part of plans that would eventually see Mancini lead the club to their first Premier League title. Proclaiming a desire to move to Spain or Italy, Robinho made what would later prove a fateful move to AC Milan. A dream first season in which he helped the club win their first Serie A title for seven years was as good as it got as they reverted to also-rans during the following season-and-a-half.

Then, in January 2013, came the gang rape for which he has finally been brought to justice.

Robinho and five friends were attending a Brazilian music night at a Milan nightclub when they assaulted an unnamed woman of Albanian origin after plying her with alcohol. The footballer was reportedly questioned by police in mid-2014 and, around the same time, he missed out on World Cup selection before leaving Milan to rejoin Santos on loan for a third spell. With Brazil not extraditing its citizens, that put him out of the clutches of Italian justice.

He never returned to play in Italy, instead joining what was then a big-name exodus to China with Guangzhou Evergrande in July 2015, before heading home again the following February to sign for Atletico Mineiro. Despite making a flying start, his past was now starting to catch up with him and in 2017, in his absence, he was finally tried over the 2013 gang rape.

On November 23 of that year, he was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison. Under Italian law, such sentences only come into force once any appeal process has ended, and the next five years saw Robinho take full advantage. He left Brazil for Turkey for what proved his playing swansong, signing for Sivasspor and then Istanbul Basaksehir, who he helped win their first Super Lig title in 2020. He also did not travel to Italy that season for the club’s Europa League group-stage match at Roma.

With the first appeal against his conviction still pending, he rejoined Santos again in October the following campaign. He was met with an enormous backlash, further compounded following the emergence of details of the 2017 court judgment against him that included transcripts of conversations obtained by police bugging his phone and car.

In one exchange with a friend, Robinho referred to the assault, saying: “I’m laughing because I couldn’t care less, the woman was completely drunk, she has no idea what happened.” Another saw him deny having sex with the victim, to which his friend replied: “I saw you when you put your penis inside her mouth.” The footballer retorted: “That doesn’t mean having sex.”

Robinho responded to the publication by announcing his contract had been suspended and complaining of being persecuted by the “demonic” press in much the same way as Brazil’s former far-Right president Jair Bolsonaro. Two months later, his initial appeal against his conviction was thrown out, the courts later releasing details stating he had “brutally humiliated” his victim. Another appeal to Italy’s Supreme Court meant it would be more than another year before his sentence became final.

That was still not the end of the matter. After a futile attempt to extradite Robinho in 2023, the Italian government requested that he instead serve his jail term in Brazil, prompting a fresh series of hearings there. When approval this was finally granted, he was duly arrested on March 22 last year and driven straight to Tremembe.

Interest in Robinho’s life behind bars has been huge in his homeland amid stories about it, including one about it taking only minutes for fellow inmates to induce him into a game of football following his arrival. He reportedly performed stepovers, nutmegs and backheels to the delight of those watching, with one prisoner said to have proclaimed: “He’s been baptised!”

Details have also re-emerged from a book by Brazilian true-crime journalist Ullisses Campbell indicating the prison’s male population and their female counterparts, held three miles away, had created their own version of online dating app Tinder in which they exchanged photos and letters. A television drama based on Campbell’s work, entitled Tremembe, is due to air on Amazon Prime this year. For those involved, the incarceration of one of Brazil’s most famous footballers could hardly have come at a better time.

Last Christmas could be the first of many Robinho spends away from his loved ones amid reports he will not qualify to join Tremembe’s semi-open regime until 2027 at the earliest. He appears to have retained the staunch backing of his family, most publicly his eldest child Robson Junior. Going by the name Juninho, the 17-year-old has followed in his father’s footsteps by joining Santos. A few weeks after Robinho was jailed, Juninho was filmed celebrating scoring in a youth game by lifting his shirt to reveal a T-shirt with a photograph of his family beneath the slogan: “God gave me the best father in the world!”

He turns 18 this year, the same age his father was when the latter first made his name. It can only be hoped the boy officially known as Robson de Souza Junior does not make the same mistakes.