Inside Robinho’s new life in prison: Ex-Man City star ‘has shock job, and shares an eight-square-metre cell with fellow inmate as he seeks to reduce nine-year sentence for gang rape’

Robinho reportedly shares an eight-metre-squared cell and has picked up new job in prison as he seeks to curtail a nine-year sentence for gang rape.

He entertains fellow inmates with his football skills, sunbathes, and has joined the prison’s reading club, but only gets to see immediate family members.

Robinho was condemned to nine years behind bars last March after lengthy legal battles, having initially been found guilty of gang rape and sentenced in Italy in 2017.

The former Manchester City star was one of six men who were found guilty of assaulting an Albanian woman in an Italian nightclub in January 2013.

He now resides in the notorious Dr. Jose Augusto Cesar Salgado P2 prison in Tremembe, Sao Paulo state, nicknamed ‘the prison of the famous’.

Its sickening cast of high-profile inmates include a man who killed his own daughter; one who is locked up for 98 years after kidnapping and murdering a 15-year-old girl; and a former doctor who abused 39 sedated patients.

The ex-Man City and Brazil star shares an eight-metre-squared cell, is part of a reading club, and entertains inmates with his football skills

He is only permitted visits from immediate family and was not allowed out at Christmas

Spanish outlet Marca reports that Robinho can reduce his sentence by one day for every 12 hours he works.

The Brazilian, 41, completed a 600-hour electronics course and now fixes radios and televisions inside the prison, which is said to house more than 2,500 inmates. 

Alongside participating in the reading club, Robinho gardens, and has completed the 10 modules of the work and citizenship education programme.

His cell-mate is a 22-year-old who is locked up for inducing somebody to commit suicide or self-mutilation, Marca claims.

Many of the prisoners were released for 11 days over Christmas, but Robinho was not deemed eligible for the festive perk, meaning he had no family time with his wife Vivian and their three children at their home in Santos. 

When he does receive visits from family – either his wife, children, or parents – they are allowed to bring a limited selection of treats.

His 17-year-old son Robinho Jr, who awaits the chance to play with Neymar at Santos, is among those who bring food, drinks, clothes, games like chess or checkers, writing materials, and strictly non-pornographic magazines or books.

When he wants to play football, he borrows others’ boots. 

His prison in Tremembe houses high-profile criminals, and inmates have established their own version of Tinder 

Many inmates were allowed out over Christmas but Robinho was not deemed eligible

‘He keeps his head down and moves forward calmly. He’s an exemplary prisoner and hasn’t had any problems with other inmates. He keeps busy,’ Marca quotes his lawyer, Mario Rosso, as saying. 

In January, Mail Sport ran separate details about Robinho’s time in the famous prison, which is not far from where Arsenal star Gabriel Jesus grew up. 

Inmates have devised their own offline version of dating app Tinder which sees guards help pair them up, according to SPORT and journalist Ullisses Campbell.

The dating network has been set up with a women’s penitentiary around five kilometres away, with prisoners sending each other photos and guards reading the letters exchanged between them.

In one case, a woman who was jailed for stabbing her husband 56 times was reportedly dumped by a man who killed his brother.

The man, named Vinicius Nunes, was unimpressed that Jaqueline Moraes looked ‘thinner and younger’ in person than she had in the photos, and he ended up getting engaged to another woman through the dating service.

Robinho had initially been sentenced in 2017 but it took seven years to bring him to justice.

Italian authorities had wanted him to serve nine years in Italy, but he was in Brazil, where the law typically forbids the extraditions of native criminals.

Robinho was placed in this police car following his arrest in the beachfront city of Santos

Italy appealed for him to be extradited in 2022 before a landmark ruling by Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (BSCJ) sentenced him in his homeland.

Robinho, who was 28 and playing for AC Milan at the time of the gang rape, admitted during his appeal to having ‘contact’ with the woman, but the Brazilian insisted it was consensual.

The Milan Court of Appeals found Robinho had ‘belittled’ and ‘brutally humiliated’ the victim as it upheld his original sentence in December 2020.

Intercepted phone calls between the Brazilian and those allegedly involved in the assault were used as key evidence in his initial conviction.

Robinho had said: ‘It makes me laugh because I’m not interested, the woman was drunk, she doesn’t even know what happened.’

The forward had secured a transfer back to Santos in 2020 where he was handed a contract that was worth minimum wage.

But he was forced to tear up the contract amid outcry over his signing, with a major sponsor pulling its support for the football club.

The winger came through the Santos academy where he was seen as one of Brazil’s rising stars.

He would go on to play 137 matches for Real Madrid, 53 for Man City and 144 for AC Milan during his playing career.

He also made 100 appearances for the Brazil national side.