The former Brazil and Manchester City striker Robinho has been arrested by federal police at his home in the city of Santos after a Brazilian court ruled he should serve a nine-year prison sentence for a rape he was convicted of committing in Italy.

The 40-year-old footballer, whose full name is Robson de Souza, was taken into custody on Thursday night after his lawyers failed in their attempt to delay his detention over the 2013 crime, which took place when he was a player for AC Milan.

In 2017, a Milan court found Robinho and five other Brazilians guilty of gang raping a woman after plying her with alcohol in a discotheque.

The conviction was confirmed by an appeals court in 2020 and validated by Italy’s supreme court in 2022.

Robinho has always denied the charges.

On Thursday, Robinho arrived at the federal police headquarters in Santos, where he began his career in the 1990s, at shortly after 8pm local time. Journalists and camera crews swarmed around the police vehicle which delivered him to the building, its lights flashing.

Brazilian media reports said Robinho would be given a forensic medical examination before facing a custody hearing. After that, the disgraced footballer is expected to be transported to one of nearly 100 prisons in São Paulo state, where Santos is located.

Reports suggest he may end up serving his sentence in a prison in the city of Tremembé, which is famed for receiving “celebrity” convicts, which have included murderers and serial rapists.