From Milan to Madrid, from glory to a breakdown
It’s incredible how Kaka’s football career has been impacted by his health. Some players suffer from homesickness but Kaka has never been “diagnosed” with any of this problem’s symptoms in the Spanish capital.
In 2009, Real Madrid were a young team and every player was learning to adapt to the play—including Kaka. While Cristiano Ronaldo rather impressed the fans with his 33 goals in 35 matches tally, Kaka’s average performances disappointed anxious Madridistas.
Florentino Perez had spent an astronomical amount of money and strength in summer 2009 to reform Los Blancos’ squad as the growing wings of rivals Barcelona forced Real Madrid in the shadow. Consequently, supporters wanted to see an instant impact from the club’s biggest stars but Kaka couldn’t offer that in his debut season with the Spanish giants.
Suddenly, his glorious moments as a player seemed almost buried in the past. The Kaka of Real Madrid couldn’t emulate the Kaka of AC Milan—that Kaka who won the 2007 UEFA Champions League, the FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball, the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA Player of the Year awards among a multitude of other individual and collective prizes.
Some preferred to blame Kaka’s weak influence on Manuel Pellegrini’s managerial system. But following the appointment of Jose Mourinho in summer 2010, nothing improved for the Brazilian. In fact, things went from bad to worse for Kaka whose pre-season campaign suffered a huge injury blow.
The midfielder still hit 20 appearances and 7 goals during the 2010/11 season. This somehow proved that Kaka wasn't finished as a star.
However, the positive impact of Mesut Özil, Sami Khedira and Angel di Maria pushed the public to believe that Kaka’s time at Real Madrid deserved to end.
A portion of Real Madrid fans started to lose faith in the Brazilian ace and talks about an exit for the player quickly emerged everywhere. In the news, the pressure was perhaps worst than anywhere else.
Kaka’s poor statistics got constantly reminded by football pundits. But maybe the €68.5M price tag also played a big role in creating more stress for the hernia injury victim.
Transfer speculations linked the Brazilian with big money moves to Chelsea and Internazionale. For many football fans and pundits, the choice seemed easy to make: exchanging flop Kaka for money looked to be the ideal deal. Some even talked about “getting rid” of the player for any reasonable fee. However, Jose Mourinho decided to maintain his faith in the midfielder who spent most of his season in hospital or at the gym.
Bury the past, Kaka’s getting back to normal business!
Now Kaka’s time to shine has apparently arrived. The 29-year-old star has made 5 appearances for Real Madrid in La Liga and his contribution for the team against Ajax proved to be fantastic. In short, Kaka had his best game in a Real Madrid shirt on match-day 2 of the UEFA Champions League. A great goal, energetic runs and intelligent passes is what the public witnessed from the former AC Milan play maker.
Finally, Sergio Ramos could rightfully order supporters to “acknowledge the hard work he has done” since his arrival at the club. In honor of the player, it was stated on Real Madrid’s official website that “Kaka deserves even more credit when taking into account that he missed nearly five months last season due to an injury on his left knee. His will power and, above all, his will to succeed were key to his recovery.”
Likewise, Karanka was clear on the matter during the press conference after September 27’s European encounter against Ajax. Speaking about Kaka’s career at the Santiago Bernabeu, the assistant coach affirmed:
“Kaka has, frankly, had a rough time. He is a quality player and it is very important for us to see him happy and enjoying himself because it means he will be an essential player on this team.
“He is the first one who deserves to be fit. The rest of us simply have to stand by him and support him.”
This weekend, the season will continue for Kaka as Real Madrid will play away to Espanyol. Excited by his individual improvement, the number 8 player recently revealed at a press conference during the presentation of FIFA 12:
“I never wanted to leave the club. Neither the club nor the coach wanted to me to leave either. My dream was to succeed at Real Madrid and no hurdles will stop me from doing that now.
“I feel in debt with Madridismo and that's another reason I didn't want to leave. I wish to pay Madridistas back for their affection during difficult times.”
Those who stopped believing in Kaka’s potential at Madrid are perhaps not real Madridistas and they may have to apologize to the player or watch ashamed as the Brazilian is reaching top form.
