During his time at AC Milan, Ricardo Kaka was hailed as one of the best, if not the best player in the world. When you consider this was at the height of Ronaldinho and Eto’o’s careers, that is not a small achievement. Kaka was subject to interest from a host of Europe’s top clubs, with Roman Abramovich personally courting the player to entertain a move to Chelsea, yet the Brazilian chose to move to Spain and join the Galacticos of Real Madrid.
A couple of managers and injuries later, and Kaka has had to content himself with a place on the bench for the majority of Madrid’s games, but in Mourinho, he has a manager who is willing to drop big names should they not merit a place in the first team, and replace them with the ones he feel does. Kaka has impressed in both pre-season and when coming on as a sub in the games so far this season – enough so to earn himself a start in the game against Rayo Vallecano this evening.
Kaka certainly warranted his place in the starting line-up, being instrumental in the first three goals for Madrid, looking bright and the player who could provide the most creativity on the park. After creating a goal and earning a penalty, Kaka should be pleased with his nights work. With Mourinho, he has a manager who knows how to motivate players and instil confidence in them, even during their darkest hours, something of which Kaka will certainly have experienced during his time with Los Blancos.
By bedding the Brazilian midfielder in slowly this season and not throwing him into the harsh glare of the Spanish media, Kaka has been protected from criticism to an extent, and allowed to regain both his confidence and fitness whilst creating a place for himself in the team.
After Real again went down to ten men, Kaka was substituted in place of the slightly more defensive Sami Khedira, which whilst the player may be disappointed in not lasting the 90, makes sense with the amount of fixtures Real are facing in a short period of time, and the work rate not to mention the energy that is required when playing with ten men for extended amounts of time. Khedira who has fresh legs is slightly more equipped to provide this than Kaka is, who let’s not forget is still coming back from lengthy spells on the side-lines, and is building up long term fitness game by game.
Off the field, there has never been any doubt over the character that Kaka possesses, with the player a devout follower of religion and a family man. Late nights in clubs and rumours of off field antics are not what follow the player around. He stated more than once that he wished to stay at the club and fight for his place, and has worked to do this, looking like a bright spark in the Madrid midfield. The future definitely looks brighter for Kaka than it did a year ago, and with the rest of the season still to come, it would be no surprise if Kaka became one of the key players for Jose Mourinho, reviving both his career and Real’s season.
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Kaka last night did look more like the Kaka of a few seasons ago. Faster, more confident and harder working. In addition he once again seems to possess a genuine goal threat and linked up wll with CR. Always good to see a real quality player get back to his best.
I wonder why people still doubting kaka’s quality, when this guy hits form, he is far better than cr7 nd messi. Kaka is phenomenon nd his quality is limitless, u people ain’t see anything, kaka is still coming. Up King KAKA.