One of Brazil's brightest new football talents yesterday made a plea for the return of his mother who was kidnapped at gunpoint at the weekend.
The plight of Robinho, a 20-year old Santos player reportedly on the verge of a multi-million pound transfer to Real Madrid, illustrates a growing problem for South American players, whose high salaries can attract unwelcome attention from the gangs infesting the shanty towns where many of them were born.
Robinho's mother, Marina de Silva Souza, 43, was preparing a barbecue with friends in Praia Grande, a working class area 45 miles from Sao Paulo, when gunmen burst into the house and bundled her into the boot of her car.
The hosts were locked in a bathroom as the kidnappers fled and Dona Marina's car was later found abandoned in downtown Sao Paulo.
Robinho, whose skills have netted 21 goals this season, was withdrawn from the Santos team on Sunday, and flown to be with his family.
In a brief press conference yesterday, a red-eyed Robinho begged reporters outside his mother's apartment to respect his family's privacy.
He added: "I hope this ends well, with my mum returning and me playing football."
Police sources claimed that the kidnappers are yet to make contact, but those familiar with such cases said demands were likely to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. "Our only target at the moment is just to bring the victim in safely," detective Alberto Torassa told reporters.
Reports of the arrival of a "new Pele" are nothing new in Brazil, but Robinho is more deserving of the title than many pretenders to the throne. Like Pele, Robinho emerged from poverty with the help of a close-knit family and an unusual footballing gift. He was born in a shanty town near Sao Paulo, but has since bought apartments for his mother and other members of his family in a middle class district of Santos.
Robinho also found his way into the same Santos team that discovered Pele. His skills have generated intense Brazilian media speculation about a move to a top European club, with Chelsea among the clubs said to be tracking him.
A day before the kidnapping incident, Brazilian and Spanish media reports stated that Real Madrid were about to sign the young winger as an ideal candidate to replace the Portuguese international Luis Figo, tipped to leave the club.
Friends said Robinho had been put on alert about the dangers of his high profile and had bodygards. However, his mother, had ignored advice about precautions.
The abduction has drawn media attention to a growing problem in and around the Brazilian business capital of Sao Paulo, where 83 kidnappings for ransom have been registered this year, although the families of footballers have only recently joined those of business leaders as prime targets.
The highest profile abduction prior to the Robinho case occurred in 1994, when Romario's mother was seized by a Rio de Janeiro gang on the eve of the World Cup Finals, but subsequently released.
Brazilian football officials are concerned that constant news of lucrative contracts with foreign clubs will make players an increasingly common target for kidnappers, as in Argentina, where the problem has reached epidemic proportions. A decade of economic decline in Argentina has drawn the spotlight to the wages of footballers.
Famous kidnapping victims include the River Plate coach Leonardo Astrada and Juan Roman Riquelme, now with Spain's Villareal, who paid $160,000 (£86,000) for the release of his brother Cristian.
"It is the visibility of footballers and their earnings. Kidnapping attempts against the players or directors of clubs, or their families, are occurring every six weeks or so, and 75% of these are successful," said Eduardo Ovalles, a researcher with Nuevo Mayoria, a sociological research centre in Buenos Aires.
Argentine clubs, and to a lesser extent the media, responded last year by refusing to reveal the sums for which players are transferred, a move which Ovalles believes has helped achieve a slight reduction in the abduction rate.
In another recent case, the Argentinian international Matias Almeyda joined Italian club Brescia after walking out of his contract with Independiente over fears that his father had been targeted by kidnappers.
Some Argentinian players have responded by dispensing with the trappings of success: the Belgrano player Dario Alaniz takes the bus to work.
Others accept the kidnapping threat as a hazard of their work. When the Velez Sarsfield player Santiago Ladino was released by his kidnappers, his father Carlos described the incident as "no big deal ... the kind of thing that happens these days in Argentina."