Robinho reveals why Real Madrid sold him to Manchester City and not Chelsea

Back in the late years of the opening decade of the 21st century, Robinho was quite a star. And for all the immense wealth that Brazilian football could boast of, that is saying something.

Robinho had taken charge of scoring goals and breaking ankles in LaLiga for Real Madrid. But his time at the Bernabeu was drawing to a close and it was widely speculated that Robinho would go to the Premier League and join Chelsea.

However, things did not pan out that way. Manchester City, freshly revived thanks to the oil fields of the middle east, swooped in and scooped Robinho up. And Robinho has now revealed to FourFourtTwo the reason behind that move.

He starts off by making his intentions, at the time, clear.

“I wanted to go to Chelsea, Scolari told me that I could make the difference for him in the team.

“However, Real Madrid ended up badly with them, they didn't like the way that Chelsea sold shirts with my name on them before the deal was done."

It looks like the botched deal was Chelsea's own doing. The Blues were a bit too reckless and jumped the gun.

“I am sure it was this that led to the negotiations to fail and it was a case of pride for Real Madrid. They were also reluctant to let me move to a club that was playing in the Champions League that season. Chelsea were, but City weren’t.”

But Robinho does not regret moving to the Blue side of Manchester. He adds,

“I moved to a great club and they welcomed me in the best way. I had one-and-a-half years of joy in Manchester, despite the city being a lot colder than Madrid!

“I don't regret leaving Madrid but I am sorry that it ended badly when I went."

A little bit of patience and things could have worked out very differently for Chelsea.