Comment: The Kaka Perplexity

You are one of the best players in the world and play for one of the biggest and most successful clubs. At 26, you have won the World Cup and the European Cup and were the best player in 2007 and one of the five best in 2008.

You are a club icon and role model. You are one of the finest players and one of the finest human beings. You live in a fashionable city with great food and great lifestyle.  

Now enter a new club from a different country. This club is struggling in the league and is actually fighting relegation. The team is comprised of mainly average players and the only star name they have was ejected out of the world's biggest and most successful club.

This club's history is nowhere as illustrious as yours is. Even in this century they have played outside the top flight. And although they hail from a well-known city, they play second fiddle to another club there.  

But this club has been freshly acquired by some mega rich men and is inundated with cash. These men come to your club with a €100 million offer and are ready to pay you €15 million a year. This club is actually bubbling with ambition to become the biggest in the world and at the moment is apparently the richest. And they are attempting to sign a number of other world-class footballers too.

The Dilemma  

So what do you do? Especially when your club is inclined to accept the offer. Especially when your club's fans are protesting, pleading and at times threatening for you to stay.

Especially when your current club doesn’t show much sign of improvement. Especially when your club hasn't won the league in four years and would perhaps not win it this season either. Especially when a certain fraction of the media says that you want to leave while others say that your club wants to sell you.

Kaka's situation is certainly a very convoluted and emotional one. He has to make perhaps the biggest ever decision anyone has had to since a certain Marcus Brutus banged his head against the wall and tore his hair while contemplating whether to stab Julius Cesar or not.

Apparently, as most would suggest, Kaka shouldn't leave mighty AC Milan for Manchester City (who?). And well, you cannot disagree much with them, can you?

The Fulcrum And The Badge  

After all, the 26-year old Brazilian international playmaker is playing for the seven times European champions. He was signed by Milan in the summer of 2003 for €8.5 million and in the subsequent five and a half years has transcended to become a symbol of the Rossoneri.

When Kaka arrived in Milan, there were many who were suspicious of his abilities. He had won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002 but didn't seem to have the requisite physique to match the European style of play.

But Kaka of course had other ideas. He quickly became the fulcrum of a Milan side that was entertaining as well as effective, that was playing some good football. Playing in midfield, Kaka has been responsible for countless goals, scoring them as well as creating them.

He might not have the Messi-esque dribble-past-the-entire-opposition propensity or the Ronaldo-like hoodwink-the-opposition-by-a-single-or-multiple-stepovers grace but he has the intelligence and the vision to mark out gaps and opponents even when they are not there, a player whose passes and shrewdness often win games.

Kaka is a club icon not only for what he does on the pitch but what he does off it. This is the man who was a virgin until he married (and he married at 23), the man who believes that Jesus saved him when he was almost destroyed in a swimming pool accident when he was 18.

The point is that the Milan supporters love him as a footballer and as a person. Which is why they are so desperately agonized with each passing minute. They know, and so does everyone, that in spite of all the wealth that Man City might command, they are on their knees when it comes to international honour and prestige.

The Push And The Pull  

But they also know that when it comes to money, it is Milan who are on their knees. In an interview with La Stampa at the weekend, club owner Silvio Berlusconi confessed that they would "probably have to sell" Kaka with the €112 million or so on offer. After all, that sort of money would help Milan revamp a squad that is ageing and is in a dire need of change.

All this is true, very much true and perhaps selling Kaka wouldn’t be bad business for Milan but isn't this a case of sacrificing a lamb to save the world or something of that sort? Seemingly Milan are so tempted by the greens dancing in front of them that they are ready to slaughter the goose that lays the golden eggs for them, the only goose that lays any kind of eggs perhaps.

And Who's The Victim....?

Now amidst all this kerfuffle, does anyone bother to spare the man in the centre of the storm any thought? To a good number of people, the man who was revered and well respected only a few weeks back is suddenly a mercenary, a player who would jump ship for the lure of the greens (a fake sheikh?).  

But is it so? So far the only comment, the only credible if we may add, from the player has been this:  

"I will be here until they no longer want me here. As long as my aims are the same as the club's [Milan] aims I would like to remain here……It's not the money which will see me leave Milan."

But poor old Kaka, it will be the money that will see you leave Milan but the money wouldn't be not only for you but for the Rossoneri as well. In the end everyone would go home happy.

Except the Milan fans of course.

Subhankar Mondal      

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