Robinho arrested

Handcuffs clicked 11 years after the crime

Robinho is alleged to have raped a woman.(Bild: APA/AFP/DOUGLAS MAGNO)

Former international footballer Robinho has been arrested in the port city of Santos following the execution of his prison sentence for rape in Brazil. Officers picked up the 40-year-old from his home on Thursday and took him to a federal police station, as reported by the state news agency Agencia Brasil. After a medical examination, he was to be transferred to a prison.

On Wednesday, the South American country's Supreme Court ruled that the former Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan striker should serve a nine-year prison sentence imposed on him in Italy in Brazil. An injunction by his lawyers against his arrest was rejected.

Woman raped
Robinho was sentenced to nine years in prison in Italy in 2017 for his involvement in the gang rape of an Albanian woman in a discotheque in Milan. After exhausting all appeals, the sentence became final in 2022. At the time, however, Robinho had already returned to his home country - and Brazil does not extradite its citizens to other countries as a matter of principle.

The Italian judiciary then applied for the sentence to be ratified in Brazil so that Robinho would at least have to serve his sentence there. This has now been granted. His lawyers have announced that they will appeal against the decision.