 After starting out with local UD Las Palmas, playing mainly in Segunda División B, the 20-year-old signed with CD Tenerife also in the Canary Islands in 1995, immediately having an impact in La Liga by playing 39 games as the club finished fifth and qualified to the UEFA Cup, also appearing regularly as his team reached the latter competition's semi-finals.After another average season he gradually fell out of favour with Tenerife and, in the 1999 January transfer window, returned to Las Palmas in the first of a series of loans.Robaina spent one season in Portugal with Sporting Clube de Portugal, taking no part whatsoever in the Lisbon side's national championship conquest (three games, ten minutes).