11 self-obsessed personalities in football

#5 Robinho

‘Why don’t you guys pass to me?’

He is one of Pele’s successor-gone-wrong victims.

After coming out of Santos’ fabled academy and becoming a young legend with the club, Real Madrid came calling and he joined them. He was very talented; the blistering turn of pace, the sheer technique, the ball-control which induced fans and defenders to hypnosis – he had it all.

But he had one darkness which overshadowed all those rays of light: the darkness of narcissism. He was good; we knew it, but he wanted us to know more – hence he always tried to do everything on his own. He thought that the real pitch is nothing but an extension of FIFA and tried to dribble and dribble and dribble and score instead of passing.

An example of his narcissism could be found in his sudden disappearance during his time at Manchester City. He took a leave from City’s training camp in Tenerife without the knowledge of then manager Mark Hughes. Before joining City, he was touted to join Chelsea and he himself thought that he going to play for the London Club.

"On the last day, Chelsea made a great proposal and I accepted," said Robinho. A reporter replied: "You mean Manchester, right?"

"Yeah, Manchester, sorry!" answered Robinho.

This attitude cost him his supposed destiny – to be one of the greatest players to ever grace the pitch. He thought that the earth and all the planets rotated around him. The way he played at times, one could interpret that he didn’t consider his team-mates to be footballers.