Robinho, 36, was sentenced to nine years in jail in Italy in 2017 for rape
He was accused of attacking a 23-year-old Albanian woman in a nightclub
Footballer appealed, saying he had consensual oral sex with the woman
But Italian appeal court upheld the original sentence on Thursday
Comes after wiretapped phonecalls revealed Robinho laughing off the charges with his friends, saying: I don t care. the woman was drunk
None of this should have been a surprise, yet it all seemed to catch both parties off-guard.
Robinho, full name Robson de Souza, left his boyhood club Santos for Real Madrid in a £20 million transfer in 2005, the 21-year-old proclaiming he would win the Ballon d Or within two or three years .
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Instead, 12 years later, in November 2017, he was found guilty for his part in the 2013 gang rape of a woman in Italy, where he was playing for AC Milan.
Tried in absentia by the Italian judicial system, he was sentenced to nine years in jail, but has never served any time. The sentence was suspended pending an appeal, which is scheduled to be heard on Thursday. Robinho has always said he plans to prove his innocence.