The court ruled by nine votes to two in favour of an Italian request that Robinho serve the sentence in his home country after he was found guilty of taking part in the gang rape of an Albanian woman out celebrating her 23rd birthday at a Milan nightclub in 2013.
Lawyers said Robinho, who was not present at Wednesday's hearing, would remain free pending a possible appeal against the ruling.
Robson de Souza, popularly known as 'Robinho', was convicted by an Italian court in 2017.
The former Brazil international was playing for AC Milan at the time of the crime.
His sentence was upheld by Italy's highest court in 2022, after which Italian prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant for him.
He had also lost in the Milan Court of Appeal in 2020.
Brazil does not extradite its nationals, however, and Italy asked that Robinho be made to serve his sentence in his home country instead.
The footballer, who protests his innocence, told Brazilian network TV Record in an interview broadcast Sunday the sex had been "consensual."
"I never denied it (the encounter). I could have denied it because my DNA was not there, but I'm not a liar."
He also accused the Italian justice system of racism.
According to the complaint, Robinho and his co-accused had made the young woman drink "to the point of rendering her unconscious and unable to resist" and then had "sexual relations several times in a row" with her.
In March 2021, the Milan court published its reasoning for upholding the original conviction, saying Robinho had acted with "special contempt for the victim, who was brutally humiliated."
Robinho's case and that of former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain defender Dani Alves have sparked criticism over the failure of football authorities in Brazil to condemn violence against women.
In February, former Brazil international full-back Alves was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for raping a woman in a nightclub in Barcelona.
On Wednesday, a court in Spain ruled he would be released from jail pending an appeal in a one-million-euro bail agreement denounced by the victim's lawyer as "justice for the rich."
