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Kaka
Early life
Kaká was born to Simone
Cristina dos Santos Leite and Bosco Izecson Pereira Leite. He has a younger
brother, Rodrigo (known as
Digão), who has
followed in Kaká's footsteps by playing football in Italy.
In September 2000, at the
age of 18, Kaká suffered a career-threatening and possibly paralysis-inducing
spine fracture as a result of a
swimming pool
accident, but remarkably made a full recovery. The next year, Kaká made his
comeback on the pitch, when he came in as a reserve-substitute in the
Torneio Rio-São Paulo
final match and scored two goals, among them the match-winner, in less than five
minutes. He attributes his recovery to God and has since
tithed his income
to his church.
Club career
In 2000, at the age of 17,
while he was still in
São Paulo FC , the
club was set to sell Kaká to Turkish 1st division side
Gaziantepspor, who
turned down the deal after refusing to pay a price of $1.5m for him. Kaká made
his São Paulo debut in January 2001 and scored 12 goals in 27 appearances, in
addition to leading São Paulo to its first and only
Torneio Rio-São Paulo
championship. He scored 10 in 22 matches the following season, and by this time
his performance was soon attracting attention from European clubs.
AC Milan, fresh from
winning the
Champions League,
brought him aboard in 2003 for $8.5 million, a fee described in hindsight as
"peanuts" by club owner
Silvio Berlusconi.
Within a month, he cracked the starting lineup, and has remained there since.
His
Serie A debut was
in a 2-0 Milan win at
A.C. Ancona. He
scored 10 goals in 30 appearances that season, as Milan won the
Scudetto and the
European Super Cup.
Kaká was an integral part
of the five-man midfield in the
2004-05 season,
usually playing in a withdrawn role behind striker
Andriy Shevchenko.
He scored 7 goals in 36 domestic appearances as Milan finished runner-up to
Juventus. Despite
Milan losing the
2004-05 Champions League
final to
Liverpool F.C on
penalties, he was
nonetheless voted the best midfielder of the tournament, and also finished
ninth, with 19 votes, in the running for the 2005
Ballon D'Or.
The 2005-06 season 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 Verona. 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
RSC Anderlecht. The
football world was beginning to take notice of a superstar in the making.
Following
Rui Costa's
departure to
Benfica at the end
of the season, and despite the insistence of many Milan fans, Kaká turned down
the chance to switch from his number 22 to the now-vacant #10, a number
typically associated with world-class scorers. (The number was eventually
claimed by teammate
Clarence Seedorf.)
Shevchenko's departure to
Chelsea FC 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 CL campaign
with ten goals, which proved a huge catalyst in steering Milan back to European
success. One of them helped the Rossoneri squeak by
Celtic FC 1-0 after
extra time 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 Kaka was one of the two best players in the world, alongside his
charge
Cristiano Ronaldo.
The previous month, a panel of experts set up by Italian publication
Gazzetta dello Sport
proclaimed Kaká as the world's best footballer. Shevchenko also included his
endorsement, while suggesting that Kaka deserved to win the Ballon d'Or.
Kaká added the Champions
League title to his trophy case for the first time when Milan defeated
Liverpool F.C. 2-1
in
Athens on
May 23,
2007. Though he
went scoreless, he provided the assist for the second of
Filippo Inzaghi's
two goals. 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. In June 2007,
German football publication Kicker named him the world's best player,
with Cristiano Ronaldo and
Ronaldinho
finishing second and third, respectively. Recently Pelé considered by many as
the greatest footballplayer all-time dubbed Kaká as the worlds best
footballplayer, he also predicted that Kaká may turn out to be the best the
sport has ever seen.
National Team
Kaká made his Seleção
debut in January 2002 against
Bolivia. He was
part of the
2002 FIFA World Cup-winning
squad, but played only 19 minutes, all of which were in the first round match
against
Costa Rica. During
the final against
Germany, coach
Luis 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 Gold Cup tournament, where Brazil finished as runner-up, as did
Kaká with a second-best three goals. He was also named as one of the
competition's top eleven players by position. On
June 29,
2005, he scored in
a 4-1 defeat of
Argentina in the
2005 Confederations Cup
final, with a powerful shot into the upper right-hand corner of the net. 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.
Kaká started in his first
FIFA World Cup
Finals in 2006, scoring his first and only goal in a 1-0 victory over a national
football team|Croatia]] in Brazil's opening match. Unfortunately, he was unable
to keep up his momentum for the remainder of the tournament as Brazil were
ingloriously eliminated by
France in the
quarterfinals. Despite his mediocre World Cup form, he maintained his starting
position among new Brazil coach
Dunga's new squad
of younger talent for Brazil's post-WC matches. On
September 3,
2006, he scored one
of his most brilliant goals for Brazil, receiving the ball off a deflection from
an Argentina corner kick and 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 upcoming
2007 Copa América.
"I haven't had a break for three seasons. I won't have the form to achieve
what is expected of me at an international level." Dunga took the optimistic
route, declaring that while he was disappointed about Kaká's decision, his
absence would subsequently free up a roster spot for a lesser-used player. Kaká,
however, did play 70 minutes of Brazil's 1-1 friendly draw with
England on June 1,
but only 30 in a lackluster goalless draw with
Turkey on June 5.
Personal life and
religion
A devout
evangelical
Christian, Kaká
became engrossed in religion at the age of 12: "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 Milan's 2007 Champions League
triumph. Kaká previously sported the same shirt during Milan's 2004
Scudetto
celebration and after Brazil's defeat of Germany in the 2002 World Cup final,
and 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, among them backup keeper
Gomes and defender
Lúcio, wore
T-shirts with "Jesus Loves You" printed on them in various languages.
In 2005, two days before
Christmas, Kaká married 18-year-old Caroline Celico at the Reborn in Christ
Church in
São Paulo. She was
born on
July 26,
1987 to Rosangela
Lyra, the director of
Dior in Brazil, and
entrepreneur Celso Celico. She and Kaká met in 2001 while she was a student and
he was playing for São Paulo FC. The wedding drew 600 guests, including fellow
Brazilian footballers
Cafu,
Ronaldo,
Adriano,
Dida,
Júlio Baptista, and
then-Brazil coach
Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Caroline is currently attending university in Milan, where she plans to earn a
fashion business degree.
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 sign of thanks to God after every
score, and is proud that he was a virgin when he married.[1]
His favorite music is
gospel music, and
his favorite 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
February 12,
2007. (He is
ineligible to play for
Italy, though,
having already played for Brazil.) 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.
Nickname
His nickname is pronounced
as it is spelled, with stress on the second syllable. It is a common
term of endearment
of "Ricardo" in Brazil. In Kaká's case, however, it was born from younger
brother Rodrigo calling him "Caca" due to his inability to pronounce "Ricardo";
it eventually evolved into Kaká. He is often called "Ricky Kaká" by the
European media.
Career statistics
Honours
Club
Individual honours
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