Brazilian great Ricardo Kaka explains his passage to Spain to play for Real Madrid and the motives behind the decision to abandon the Rossoneri.
June 8th 2009: a date that Milan fans will not easily forget. No trophy raised, but the day of one of the most exciting (and painful) farewells in the club’s history: that of Kaka, who had completed his move to Real Madrid for € 65 million that summer nine years ago. The Brazilian talent was the first purchase of the Florentino Perez-based presidency, a choice that Kaka really wanted to explain in an exhaustive way today that his football career has ended:
“Milan, in that period, had no intention of selling any players – he explained – They did it only if requested publicly: and so it was for Shevchenko, who went to Chelsea. With me it was different: for the first time the club had opened the door to an offer, that of Manchester City“. Kaka continues: “Initially I decided to stay, but when Milan opened to my sale, then I placed a condition: if I would leave the Rossoneri, it would have been to play for Real Madrid, the only club for which I would have left Milan”.
In the summer of 2009, both clubs reached an agreement for his transfer: “At the end of the season negotiations took off: Florentino Perez had called Galliani several times to have me, after Milan had opened its doors to negotiations with City in the month of January. Then Real called my father: I said yes, confident that playing in Madrid was my will”.
A strong desire, that of Kaka, to dress the shirt of Los Blancos, therefore: “My arrival at Real Madrid was great, I was so convinced of my choice that I ended up earning even less than what I earned at Milan, even though at the end I also won less. And even less than I would have done in Manchester. I have always looked at money, but they have never been the basis of my decisions“, concluded the Brazilian ace.
