Chelsea have stepped up their interest in Real Madrid forward Robinho after sporting director Frank Arnesen met with the player's agent.
New coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who began his Chelsea job on Tuesday, has already signed Portugal international Deco from Barcelona and there are increasing signs that Robinho could be the next arrival.
Robinho's representative Vagner Ribeiro is determined to get the best move for the Real Madrid winger and claims he is better than Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been targeted by the Spanish champions.
"It's true that Chelsea are interested in signing Robinho," Ribeiro told Spanish sports daily AS.
"They have been after him for a while and there has been much more contact since Scolari became the new Chelsea coach.
"I met with (Frank) Arnesen in London and he confirmed to me that Chelsea wanted my player for next season."
The Spanish league champions are reportedly keen to offload the player to free up some cash to buy Ronaldo, but Ribeiro insists his client is as good as, if not better than, the Portugal international.
"Neither Robinho nor I like the fact that Real Madrid can use him as part exchange in their bid to sign Cristiano Ronaldo," he continued.
"We don't like this attitude and we want Madrid to start valuing Robinho because at the moment they're not.
"Robinho is as good a player as Cristiano Ronaldo or better.
"The difference is that Cristiano Ronaldo reached the Champions League final and Robinho didn't.
"But if Robinho had won such a title he would be at the same level as Cristiano."
Robinho played an important role in Madrid's league success last season - scoring 11 goals in 32 games - and enjoyed his best campaign since joining the club in 2005.
Ribeiro claims the 24-year-old is not keen to leave the Bernabeu but that he would seriously consider doing so if Madrid continue to ignore his talents.
"Robinho's priority is to continue at Real Madrid," he added.
"But he cannot stay in a place in which they don't recognise his talent and at the moment Real Madrid are not doing that and I'm not talking about money.
"I'm referring to the fact that they are undervaluing him in comparison to Cristiano Ronaldo."
More news from SportingLife.com
Comment 1 - 15 of 15
Most of you are talking pants i'm afraid. Prem is the best league in the world. 3 prem teams in semi's of champs league, and 4 in the quarters. How many Spanish teams were in the quarters? 1! What a great league! Schalke, Roma and Fenerbache for the win! Just look at how badly Roma got smashed by Man U in 06-07! I know they did better last year, but still got beat.........after they knocked out Madrid. Robinho awesome? I don't think so, he'll do exactly the same as other south americans in the Prem. Rubbish!
he will bring very good things to chelsea and i so hope and wish we get him
Robinho is the best but i don't think he will play well in Chelsea. He might just be one of those good player in chelsea like "Malouda" that use to play very well in Lyon but rubbish in Chelsea, so i think that Robinho should stay in Real Madrid. He knows the team well and he is used to the style that madrid play, also to show that he is better than Ronaldo, all he needs to do is to player better against him in champion league if he doesn't come to madrid
THIS IS WITHOUT A DOUBT ONE OF THE BIGGEST AND MOST EXCITING TIMES FOR CHELSEA FC AND AS A 100% FAN SINCE I COULD WALK AND ANOTHER THING BORN A BRED IN CHELSEA ,ANYWAY BESIDES THAT CHELSEA SHOULD AND WILL GET THE TALENTS OF ROBINHO ON BOARD I THINK THAT IT WILL FOR SURE BRING OUT HIS TALENTS PLAYING THE ENGLISH GAME EVEN MORE SO IF THERE ARE OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN PLAYERS IN THE SQUAD AND THE PAIRING OF DECO AND HIS MATE FROM PORTUGAL CANNOT SPELL HIS NAME (SORRY )ANYWAY THINGS ARE LOOKING GOOD FOR THE BLUES ON PAPER JUST HOPE IT WORKS OUT AND WITH BIG PHIL AT THE HELM THIS SPEAKS FOR ITS SELF MY ONLY CONCERN IS THE LIKES OF FERGIE MAKING HUGE WAVES ABOUT CHELSEA HAVING TOO MUCH TALENT ON BOARD THUS CAUSING A RIFT AMONGST OTHER TEAMS WELL I SAY TOUGH YOU HAVE HAD YOUR MOMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT THE REIGN OF CHELSEA IS ABOUT TO START AND LONG MAY IT REIGN ANOTHER THING COME ON LAMPS STAY WITH US MATE CHELSEA ARE ABOUT TO BE THE CLUB TO BE SEEN WITH YOUR TALENTS AND MOTIVATION ARE PRICLESS DONT GO PLEASE!OPPs A BIT OF AMOTION THERE SORRY,ONE OTHER SMALL POINT WE GET ROBINHO WE MUST SECURE THE SERVICES OF KAKA AT ALL COST COME ON CHELSEA YOU CAN DO IT?
drogba all d way,robinho and deco will only do him good,better than lampard.
and this is comming from blue blue heart all the way.CHELSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!Sell sheva d sleaper,jo cole will bring good income to,makelele d best god bless him,has done his job,CHELSEEE will never forget him
Man!The new look Big Phill Chelsea needs the youth of robinho.Drogba is no longer the star as we saw in the last season.He can go to inter milan if he likes so long as robinho comes to Stamford!
welcome to EPL for Robinho. I'm eager to see what happen next season. Could chelsea perform better that The GUNNERS. W'll c...
chelsea is d best...nine years i ve been suppotin u all for...
good move...i fink ms curve is a pathetic loser and just jealous of us...shove off...
CHELSEA TILL DEATH...im gonna get a tattoo done as such in a days or two time...
nice move Chelsea,,,robinho is way bettr than dat rat-naldo...
come on robinho move to chelsea beat christiano Ronaldo, prove that u r better ttahn him
chelsea at it again,my advice to chelsea is buy every player in the world have a league with only chelsea in it to insure you never lose a game,have national chelsea day,have chelsea cookies,re-name london,CHELSEA,have roads like john teary street, frank lampost,you can also have some nice DECO ,so chelsea shut up and stop talking ballacks.
chelsea the greatest
'come n get me' told robinho to big phill
umm why does that matter he is rigth Robinho is betetr than ronaldo for what he does but i think that Chelsea should gve carvallio up and that he should go to real madrid and i also think that Robinho should stay with real that would make a good team along with reals key players v nistelrooy snjder ramos raul real will win the champions league next year if they dont give robinho up also speaking from a bias standpoint becaus ei am a real madrid fan
can someone tell me what language that last comment is in!!!
why has he left the e out of chelsea?
CHLSEA GO AND GET ROBINHO CAUSE HE IS DA BEST.IF MADRID DONT VALUE HIM CHLSEA WILL.SO COME 2 CHLSEA U WILL BE FAR BETTER THAN C.RONALDO.AND WIN DA WORLD FOOTBALLER OF DA YEAR
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account