Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite – mercifully, known just as Kaka has explained his reasons for rejecting Manchester City in January 2009.
The Brazilian playmaker was among the best players in the world at the time and City had just been taken over by Sheikh Mansour and were keen to make a big statement signing.
Kaka won the World Cup, Champions League and countless league titles with AC Milan, Real Madrid and Brazil in a storied career.
Man City were looking to make a statement signing and the Brazilian was top of their list, but Kaka has explained why he rejected a move to the Premier League in the winter window of 2009.
Embed from Getty ImagesIn a Q&A with fan-submitted questions with FourFourTwo magazine, the former Brazil international has explained his reasons for opting against a move to the Premier League and becoming the face of Man City’s new project. A fan asked if rumours of a potential move to Chelsea were true.
Kaka responded: “No, there wasn’t an official approach from Chelsea in 2009 – just informal talks, as Ancelotti was taking charge there and we had a great relationship.
“The real offer I got from an English club was Manchester City’s, around six months before I moved to Madrid. City were in the early days of their project to become a dominant club in Europe, and they wanted me to be one of their leaders on the pitch. But I didn’t think it was the right time to leave Milan.
“In my mind, Real Madrid was the only club I’d ever consider going to if Milan wanted me to leave. That wasn’t the politics of Milan, though: at the time, it wasn’t common for them to sell big players.
“The first to leave was [Andriy] Shevchenko, but the club didn’t want to let him go. They forced Sheva to make his wish to leave public – he had to announce his intentions in a press conference. It was different in my case.
“When City made the offer, Milan told me they were happy with it and keen to go ahead with the deal, to organise their finances. The doors were open to leave, and I said no. But I also told the club I’d happily go to Real Madrid if an offer came in the next window. It did.”
These Kaka’s comment has prompt some Man City Fans to react on Social Media.
Don’t care, signed Craig Bellamy instead.
— Gwilym (@gwilymjjames) September 3, 2021
Don’t blame him tbf, he was a baller. Why would he want to come to city at that time instead of Real Madrid ?
— 7 💫 (@MCFCHag) September 3, 2021
His career went downhill from there
— Curryminati 🏆 (@currymcfc) September 3, 2021
He regretted it after a non eventful year at Madrid.
— Akun Pemerintah (@lordsalty57_) September 3, 2021
He was the KDB of his day but we probably dodged a bullet there. He soon got injured at Real and was never the same player. Could have been our problem instead of Reals.
— Brian Iino (@IinoBrian) September 3, 2021
But then again, if we had gotten Kaka we probably wouldn’t have gotten our greatest ever goal scorer Sergio Agüero
— Mollie (@mcfcaep) September 3, 2021
He went to MAdrid so its understandable at that time but stilll
— docxc (@grandourum) September 3, 2021
Cant imagine
What if???
We would have created different timeline 😂
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