5 Brazilian players who could not deliver at Real Madrid

#1 Robinho (2005-2008)

The 'new Pele' never lived up to the initial hype and failed to achieve legendary status despite his talent

While his stats look great, the dancing forward is on this list because he never fully lived up to the hype which accompanied his arrival in Madrid.

Tipped by the great Pele himself to be a worthy successor to his legacy, the São Vicente-born star first came to the scene with a trajectory that was closely mirrored just a couple of years later by Neymar (Santos wonderboy to La Liga big hitter).

He joined Los Merengues in 2005 for €24 million and was assigned the number 10 jersey which had only been recently vacated by Portuguese legend, Luis Figo.

This was a deliberate ploy by Real supremo Florentino Perez to build the team round this very marketable youngster.

He had one of the most memorable debuts in La Liga history as he came in the 65th minute to replace Thomas Gravesen with the teams tied at 1-1. What followed was a masterclass in movement, dribbling and passing as he assisted captain Raul Gonzalez to score the winning goal and was loudly acclaimed by both the press and fans.

Under Fabio Capello in his second season at the club, Robinho’s flashiness didn’t sit well with the disciplinarian that Capello was and Robinho spent most of the 2006-2007 season as a sub and played a relatively insignificant role in Real’s La Liga win that year.

He was more prominent when Bernd Schuster took over the following season and helped the team retain the La Liga title.

However, his lifestyle, tactical indiscipline coupled with the desire of then president Ramón Calderón to bring in Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United meant that Robinho’s place at the club became untenable.

He was sold to Manchester City for £32.5 million on the transfer deadline day in 2008 and is remembered by Madridistas as someone who didn’t live up to his enormous potential.