Robinho reveals why Real Madrid pulled the plug on move to Chelsea | OneFootball

Robinho joined Manchester City from Real Madrid in one of the biggest coups of the Premier League era back in 2008 having seemingly been all set for a move to Chelsea.

However, ten years on, the Brazilian has revealed the Spanish giants pulled the plug on a move to Stamford Bridge after the west London club started selling shirts with his name on before his arrival.

In the August of that year, Robinho attended a press conference stating that he had told Real: “My head is there (at Chelsea), I want to play over there.”

The move looked guaranteed before he eventually turned up at the Etihad to mark a seismic takeover for the Manchester club.

Revealing Los Blancos elected to send him to City over Chelsea due to a ‘matter of pride’, Robinho told FourFourTwo: “My main goal was to move to Chelsea – Big Phil [Scolari] had said I could make the difference for him as his squad, according to him, was not creative enough.

“But Real Madrid had fallen out with Chelsea – they didn’t like them selling shirts with my name on before the deal had been done.

“I am pretty sure that this error was one of the main reasons why the transfer failed, as it was a matter of pride for Real Madrid.”