(FOLHAPRESS) - Promoted to Santos' main squad in July 2025, at the age of 17, Robinho Jr. has a very low rating among professionals and lives with the expectation of being loaned to European football, still far from giving the technical and financial returns imagined at the beginning of this journey.
Robinho Jr. seeks a fresh start in Europe after frustrated plan and endorsement from Santos
(FOLHAPRESS) - Promoted to Santos' main squad in July 2025, at the age of 17, Robinho Jr. has a very low rating among professionals and lives with the expectation of being loaned to European football, still far from giving the technical...
The young man, who has Peixe's approval for an international transfer, attracts the interest of Rayo Vallecano and Sevilla, from Spain, as well as Genoa, from Italy, who want him for a year. THE PLANNED PROMOTION THAT GOT LOST Robinho Jr.'s rise to the main team took place at the beginning of July last year.
- At the time, in his first year in the under-20s, the boy was still going through the natural training process and alternated between starting roles in the youth team, then led by Maurício...
- Skillful, the young man caught the attention of coach Cléber Xavier during a category commitment.
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The young man, who has Peixe's approval for an international transfer, attracts the interest of Rayo Vallecano and Sevilla, from Spain, as well as Genoa, from Italy, who want him for a year.
THE PLANNED PROMOTION THAT GOT LOST
Robinho Jr.'s rise to the main team took place at the beginning of July last year. At the time, in his first year in the under-20s, the boy was still going through the natural training process and alternated between starting roles in the youth team, then led by Maurício Copertino.
Skillful, the young man caught the attention of coach Cléber Xavier during a category commitment. With vast experience in polishing promises, the coach requested the integration of Robinho Jr. into the professional's training, alongside other boys, such as João Ananias, Mateus Xavier and Luca Meireles.
The idea was to accelerate development in the daily life of the main team. In the midst of the process, there was also the intention of returning young people to the under-20s when they were not used.
Robinho Jr.'s professional debut took place on July 10, 2025, in a friendly against Desportiva Ferroviária, in Espírito Santo. Soon after, he entered the second half of the 1-0 victory over Flamengo, at Vila Belmiro, in the Brazilian Championship, fulfilling his dream of playing alongside Neymar.
SALARY INCREASE AND OWNER OF SHIRT 7
Still in that month of July, Santos accelerated some steps: they renewed the boy's contract, with increased salary, and gave him the number 7 shirt, marked in the club's history by his father, Robinho, imprisoned since March 2024 after being convicted of rape in Italy.
The mystique of the number sent the stands back to a victorious past, and the boy began to have his name sung in almost every game. With each entry onto the field, the crowd became inflamed in anticipation of seeing disconcerting dribbles in sequence and the famous pedal strokes immortalized in the Santos memory by his father.
The planning, however, was frustrated and began to collapse the following month, with the dismissal of Cléber Xavier. From then on, the training process guideline was abandoned.
Since promotion, Robinho Jr. returned to the under-20s to play just one match and, with Peixe sunk in the fight against relegation in last year's Brasileirão, he ended up being used by coach Juan Pablo Vojvoda in 12 of the 18 remaining games in the competition.
Behind the scenes, there is an awareness that there were no conditions or time to polish the boy, precisely in view of the suffocation caused by the threat of relegation. The urgency was to score at any cost.
LITTLE DRAFTAGE AND AUTHORIZATION FOR LOAN
In 2026, the striker's numbers are timid: only 12 official matches played, none as a starter, totaling just 187 minutes on the field. In May, in fact, the young man made news when he got involved in a disagreement with Neymar during training at CT Rei Pelé.
The fans' excitement cooled, and the young man's name was no longer asked in the stands. The only moment of respite in the season occurred during the break for the World Cup, when he scored, from a penalty, his first and only goal as a professional in the 3-0 victory over União São João, in a friendly.
Since then, however, he has only stepped onto the pitch once, playing for 13 minutes against Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), just under a month ago.
Without an adequate development plan and without showing the same precocity demonstrated, for example, by his father at the beginning of his career, Robinho Jr. is now on the market. Without many alternatives, the Santos board has already authorized his release on loan, with an option to purchase, to Europe, aware that they will not receive significant offers if they try to negotiate him definitively at this time.
Furthermore, there is awareness at the club that there is a risk of seeing the boy reach professional maturity, in his own time and with a well-developed job, wearing another shirt.
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