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Kaká

Monday, 13 April 2009 by www.info-ind.com

Kaká

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This article is about the Brazilian footballer. For other uses, see Kaka.
This is a Portuguese name; the first family name is dos Santos and the second is Leite.
Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, born April 22, 1982 in Brasília, better known as Kaká or Ricky Kaká, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as forward and midfielder for Italian Serie A club Milan and the Brazilian national team. He was the recipient of both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 2007, and was named in the 2008 Time 100. As of February 2009, Kaká along with Internazionale's Zlatan Ibrahimović are the highest salaried football players in the world.

Early life

Kaká was born to Simone Cristina Santos Leite and Bosco Izecson Pereira Leite. His younger brother, Roberto (known as Digão), is also a professional footballer. When he was seven, his family moved to São Paulo. His school had arranged him in a local youth club called "Alphaville," who qualified to the final in a local tournament. There he was discovered by Brazilian giants São Paulo, who offered an assignment. Kaka has been seen as a role model by taking Lewis Menzies under his wing.
At the age of fifteen, Kaká suffered a career-threatening and possibly paralysis-inducing spinal fracture as a result of a swimming pool accident[citation needed], but remarkably made a full recovery. He attributes his recovery to God and has since tithed his income to his church.

Club career

São Paulo

aká began his club career with São Paulo at the age of eight. He signed a contract at fifteen and led the São Paulo youth squad to Copa de Juvenil glory. Kaká made his senior side debut in January 2001 and scored twelve goals in 27 appearances, in addition to leading São Paulo to its first and only Torneio Rio-São Paulo championship. He scored ten in 22 matches the following season, and by this time his performance was soon attracting attention from European clubs. Kaká made a total of 58 appearances for São Paulo, scoring 23 times.

Milan

Kaká and Brazilian President Lula

The steady European interest in Kaka culminated in his signing with Italian club A.C. Milan in 2003 for a fee of 18.5 million dollars, described in retrospect as "peanuts" by club owner Silvio Berlusconi. Within a month, he cracked the starting lineup, and his Serie A debut was in a 2–0 win over Ancona. He scored ten goals in thirty appearances that season, as Milan won the Scudetto and the European Super Cup.

Kaká was a part of the five-man midfield in the 2004–05 season, usually playing in a withdrawn role behind striker Andriy Shevchenko. He scored seven goals in 36 domestic appearances as Milan finished runner-up in the Scudetto race. Despite Milan losing the 2004–05 Champions League final to Liverpool on penalties, he was nonetheless voted the best midfielder of the tournament.

2005–06 saw Kaká score his first hat-tricks in domestic and European competition. On April 9, 2006, he scored his first Rossoneri hat-trick against Chievo; all three goals were scored in the second half. Seven months later, he scored his first Champions League hat-trick in a 4–1 group stage win over the Belgian side Anderlecht. The football world was beginning to take notice of a superstar in the making.[citation needed]

Kaká with Milan

Shevchenko's departure to Chelsea for the 2006–07 season allowed Kaká to become the focal point of Milan's offense as he alternated between the midfield and striker positions. He finished as the top scorer in the 2006–07 Champions League campaign with ten goals. One of them helped the Rossoneri eliminate Celtic in the quarterfinals on a 1–0 aggregate, and three others proved fatal for Manchester United in the semifinals despite Milan losing the first leg. Following the convincing 3–0 second-leg defeat at the San Siro on May 2 that knocked out the English champions, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson declared that Kaká was one of the two best players in the world, alongside his charge Cristiano Ronaldo.

Kaká added the Champions League title to his trophy case for the first time when Milan defeated Liverpool on May 23, 2007. Though he went scoreless, he won a free kick that led to the first of Filippo Inzaghi's two goals, and provided the assist for the second. For his stellar play throughout the competition, he was voted the Vodafone Fans' Player of the Season in a poll of over 100,000 UEFA.com visitors. On August 30, Kaká was named by UEFA as both the top forward of the 2006–07 CL season and Club Footballer of the Year.[10]

He played his 200th career match with Milan in a 1–1 home draw with Catania on September 30, and on October 5, he was named the 2006–07 FIFPro World Player of the Year. On 2 December 2007, Kaká became the eighth Milan player to win the Ballon d'Or, as he finished with a decisive 444 votes, long ahead of runner-up Cristiano Ronaldo. He signed a contract extension through 2013 with Milan on February 29, 2008.

Due to his contributions on and off the pitch, Time magazine named Kaká in the Time 100, a list of the world's 100 most influential people, on May 2. On October 14, he cast his footprints into the Estádio do Maracanã's sidewalk of fame, in a section dedicated to the memory of the country's top players.

On 13 January 2009, it was reported by the BBC that Manchester City made a bid for Kaká for over £100 million. Milan director Umberto Gandini replied in an emailed comment, "The only thing I can say is that the offer is huge and the club is pondering it carefully," and added that Milan would only discuss the matter if Kaká and Manchester City agreed to personal terms. Kaká initially responded by telling reporters he wanted to "grow old" at Milan and dreamed of captaining the club one day, but later said, “If Milan want to sell me, I’ll sit down and talk. I can say that as long as the club don’t want to sell me, I’ll definitely stay.” On January 19, Berlusconi announced that Manchester City had officially ended their bid after a discussion between the clubs, and that Kaká would remain with Milan. Milan supporters had protested outside the club headquarters earlier that evening, and later chanted outside Kaká's home, where he saluted them by flashing his jersey outside a window. Recently the English national team and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard told the British press that the only footballer he would pay to watch was Kaká. Considering Lampard's status as a fellow professionel footballer the statement was truly a high recognition.

National team

Kaká on the road with Brazil

Kaká made his debut for Brazil in January 2002 against Bolivia. He was part of the 2002 FIFA World Cup-winning squad, but played only 25 minutes, all of which were in the first round match against Costa Rica. During the final against Germany, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was reportedly about to send Kaká on as a substitute, but he never made it into the game as the referee did not notice him waving on the sidelines to enter the pitch.

In 2003, Kaká was the captain for the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament, where Brazil finished as runner-up as he scored three goals. He finished in joint tenth place in the voting for the 2004 FIFA World Player of the Year award, and finished two spots higher the following year. On June 29, 2005, he scored in a 4–1 defeat of Argentina in the 2005 Confederations Cup final.

Kaká started in his first FIFA World Cup finals in 2006, scoring his first and only goal in a 1–0 victory over Croatia in Brazil's opening match. He was unable to keep up the momentum for the remainder of the tournament, as Brazil was eliminated by France in the quarterfinals. On September 3, he received the ball off a deflection from an Argentina corner kick and outran Lionel Messi while taking the ball down three quarters of the field to score.

On May 12, 2007, citing an exhaustive schedule of Serie A, Champions League and national team play, Kaká openly bowed out of the 2007 Copa América, which Brazil won. He returned to play 70 minutes of Brazil's 1–1 friendly draw with England on June 1, but only 30 in a goalless draw with Turkey on June 5.

Personal life and religion

Kaká with his wife Caroline

A devout evangelical Christian, Kaká became engrossed in religion at twelve: "I learnt that it is faith that decides whether something will happen or not." He removed his jersey to reveal an "I Belong to Jesus" T-shirt and openly engaged in prayer moments after the final whistle of Brazil's 2002 World Cup, and Milan's 2004 Scudetto and 2007 Champions League triumphs. He also had the same phrase, along with "God Is Faithful," stitched onto the tongues of his boots. During the postmatch celebration following Brazil's 4–1 win over Argentina in the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup final, he and several of his teammates wore T-shirts that read "Jesus Loves You" in various languages.

Kaká is a member of the organization Atletas de Cristo ("Athletes of Christ"). His goal celebration consists of him pointing to the sky as a gesture of thanks to God. Kaká's favourite music is gospel,and his favourite book is the Bible.Since November 2004, he has served as an Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations' World Food Programme, the youngest to do so at the time of his appointment.

Kaká was sworn in as an Italian citizen on 12 February 2007. He features prominently in Adidas advertising and also has a modeling contract with Armani, but the latter prevented him from appearing in a photo collection alongside his Milan teammates that was published by Dolce & Gabbana in early 2007.

He married his childhood sweetheart Caroline Celico on 23 December 2005 at the evangelical Reborn in Christ Church in São Paulo.Their first child, Luca Celico Leite, was born in São Paulo on June 10, 2008.

Nickname

His nickname is pronounced as it is spelled, with stress on the second syllable, and is a common term of endearment of "Ricardo" in Brazil. In Kaká's case, it was born from younger brother Rodrigo calling him "Caca" due to his inability to pronounce "Ricardo" when they were young; it eventually evolved into Kaká. He is occasionally called "Ricky Kaká" by the European media.

Honours

São Paulo

Milan

International

Individual






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