Robson de Souza - more known in the world of football as "Robinho" - has been ordered by a court in Brasilia on Wednesday (Mar. 20) to serve a nine-year rape sentence in his home country of Brazil after he was found guilty by an Italian court in 2017 of taking part in gang-raping of a 22-year-old Albanian woman.
The BBC reported that the 40-year-old former player for Manchester City and Real Madrid has been living in Brazil, which does not extradite its nationals.
Judges in the Brazilian capital ruled that he should serve his sentence in the country following a request from Italy.
However, de Souza's lawyers said that he would remain free pending a possible appeal against the ruling.
Robinho, who won 100 caps for his country, was playing for AC Milan at the time of the crime.
After being found guilty, he lost an appeal in 2020 before Italy's highest court upheld his sentence in 2022. Italian prosecutors then issued an international arrest warrant for him.
Despite this, de Souza told a Brazilian network on Sunday (Mar. 17) that the sex had been "consensual."
During his career, Robinho won two La Liga titles in four seasons at Real Madrid before joining Manchester City for a then-British record fee of £32.5 million ($41.5 million) on transfer deadline day in September 2008 - also Sheikh Mansour's first day as owner of the Premier League club.
After two seasons, he joined AC Milan, where he spent the next five years before moving to Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande and returning to Brazil with Atletico Mineiro.
