'I know what I did to her': Ex-Brazil star Robinho denies RAPE but admits cheating on wife as minister says he should be jailed

Shamed former Real Madrid striker Robinho has admitted that he did have "contact" with a woman who was found to have been gang-raped in a nightclub in Milan, insisting that the incident was consensual while confessing his remorse.

The veteran striker is appealing a ruling that sentenced him to nine years in prison in 2017 for his role in a shocking sexual assault on a woman while he was with Italian giants AC Milan.

A move to top-flight Brazilian side Santos, where Robinho started his career, was ditched last week after sponsors threatened to pull out over the story, and Damares Alves, Brazil's Minister for Women, Family and Human Rights, called for the 36-year-old to be put behind bars after reading accounts of his telephone conversations at the time.

"A girl approached me and we started to have contact with her consent and mine too," the ex-Manchester City forward told UOL in a lengthy interview.

"We stayed there for a few minutes. Then I went home. When I left, the boys stayed there with her consent.

"I'm defending myself. The boys, if they did something to her, I can't speak for them. I know what I did to her and with her consent.

"Many things that are being talked about are things that I don't really remember, but there was a contact between me and her.

"There was. I'm not denying that. What didn't happen was something forced on her – that didn't happen."

An apparently damning piece of court evidence appeared to show Robinho describing the Albanian woman as "completely drunk", although the case could hinge on a claim that his words were misinterpreted in Italian.

Alves said she had been sickened by the recordings. When asked what Robinho's punishment should be, she replied: "Jail, immediately."

"There is still an appeal, but the leaked audio...what else do you want?" she asked.

"Jail. No rapist can be applauded. I know there is still an appeal there but I think it's very clear.

"The feeling [the transcripts] caused me [was] nausea, the urge to vomit. It was very bad to have read what I read from a player of his stature."

In the recordings, which are said to have been obtained by a bug placed in his car by police, Robinho's friend, Ricardo Falco, described the victim of the five-man incident as being "not even able to stand" and "really out of her mind."

Robinho was heard exclaiming: "I'm laughing because I don't care. The woman was completely drunk, she doesn't even know what happened.

"Look, the guys are in sh*t ...they are going to have problems, not me."

He also told musician Jairo Chagas: "The police can't say anything, I'll say I was with you and then I went home."

When Chargos asked Robinho whether he had sex with the woman, he replied: "No, I tried."

Father-of-three Robinho has now said that the woman could not have been inebriated and predicted that an Italian court will clear him in December.

"When she approached me, she wasn't drunk, because she remembers my name – she remembers who I am," he argued.

"The person who drinks doesn't remember anything. She remembers. The fact that she went out to another club afterwards with the boys shows that she was not abused.

"Look, there are a lot of things that are out of context. I would like to give you an interview in a broader way and explain exactly what happened.

"To speak [about it] may harm me. I trust the Italian justice system. I cannot answer you exactly."

The 100-cap Brazil hotshot, who made his last appearance for his country in the same year as the scandal broke, said his error was in cheating on Vivian, the mother of his children who he has been with since 2009.

"The mistake was not being faithful to my wife. I didn't make any mistake of raping someone, of abusing some girl...without her consent."

Santos re-signed their former youth team starlet on a tiny contract earlier this month, only to part ways with him "by mutual agreement" after the club's shirt sponsor canceled their deal "in respect to women who use our product".

A club statement said that the contract had been suspended in order to allow Robinho to concentrate fully on his court defense.