Robinho eyes comeback after ex-Man City star was given 9-year prison sentence

Former Real Madrid and Manchester City forward Robinho has held talks over a return to football despite being sentenced to nine years in prison for rape.

Brazilian club Portuguesa Santista - who hail from the Santos region of Sao Paulo and play in the A-2 division of the Paulista Championship - and Serie D club Brasilense have both held talks with Robinho, who last played for Turkish club Istanbul Basaksehir in July 2020.

In October, the Italian Ministry of Justice requested Robinho be extradited from Brazil after being sentenced to nine years in prison for rape. Nine months earlier, the Court of Cassation in Rome rejected an appeal from the former Brazil international and Ricardo Falco - a friend of the ex-forward - who were both found guilty in relation to the incident, which occurred in 2013.

Both men were found guilty under article "609 bis" of the Italian Penal Code, which is defined as the participation of two or more people gathered for an act of sexual violence, forcing the victim in question to have sexual relations against their will on account of physical inferiority.

Robinho was convicted of rape in 2017 with a nine-year jail sentence handed down by the courts but his appeal process with the Italian courts had been ongoing in the years since. The former Brazilian international continually rejected claims that he took part in a gang rape of a 22-year-old Albanian woman at the Sio Cafe nightclub in Milan in January 2013.

January's decision from the court in Rome was a final sentence with no room for further appeals with the term to begin immediately.

In February, the Italian justice system requested the extradition of both Robinho and Falco from Brazil and that has now officially been sent, as per Italian press agency Ansa and Brazilian outlet Globo.

The Brazilian constitution vetoes the extradition of Brazilians, but this measure will mean that he is liable to be arrested should he decide to leave the nation and Brazil now must officially deal with the request.

Brazilian media outlet UOL has now outlined how, two-and-a-half years after his last football appearance, the 38-year-old has held talks about a return to the sport, but no agreement has yet been reached.

Emerson Coelho, the vice president and director of football at Portuguesa Santista, has confirmed: "We have tried, we talked about the possibility [of signing him]. He has this problem, and we had a superficial conversation. It was not an official proposal, he did not give an official response, but we considered it. He is a great player. Who wouldn't?

"But there is this problem, we move on with our lives and he with his. We hope he solves his life in the legal part. What happened was a conversation. Portuguese Santista having Robinho would be very cool, but it was only a matter of conversation."

Robinho was a player for Milan at the time of the incident to which he was sentenced, and it was ruled that he and five other Brazilian men raped the woman after plying her with alcohol at a nightclub in the Italian city.

In 2017, as part of the judgement, the court ordered the victim to receive €60,000 (£53,431.02) as compensation for her suffering.

Robinho played for Milan between 2010-2015 and continued his career up until 2020 - three years after he was initially convicted, pending the subsequent appeal process, which has now concluded.

The Brazilian played for Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande in 2015 before spending two years at Brazilian side Atletico Mineiro, whom he represented at the time of the initial sentence.

He would go on to spend four years in Turkish football across spells with Sivasspor and Istanbul Basaksehir before returning to Brazil in 2020 to sign for Santos - where he had begun his career.

Robinho did not play a game for the Brazilian club during his second stint amid the ongoing appeals process and he subsequently retired from football.