kaka in armani
Meet Brazil's Rooney... without the swearing and the sex scandals
By DUNCAN CASTLES, Daily Mail
11:54am 21st February 2005
Milan's Brazilian sensation Kaka
Duncan Castles talks to the young AC Milan and Brazil star who faces Manchester United on Wednesday hoping to put one over England's own boy wonder
Imagine the precocious ability of Rooney combined with the glamour of Beckham. Subtract the foul-mouthed attraction to seedy controversy, add an eloquent intelligence and devout Christian commitment and you have some idea of the phenomenon that is Kaka.
Too good to be true? Listen to what the Brazilians say. "Someone with Kaka's talent and qualities comes along only once every 50 years," said Carlos Alberto Parreira, the AC Milan forward's international coach. "He is the future example for every player in the Brazil team."
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That from the man in charge of the world's finest side, a 61-year-old not given to hyperbole, who selects Kaka's fellow attackers from Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Adriano, Robinho and Rivaldo and whom, in earlier stints, has worked with Zico, Socrates, Careca and Romario.
The 6ft 1in forward, who glides rather than runs past opponents, is the man Manchester United must stop at Old Trafford on Wednesday when the Champions League resumes with a bang. And there is an analogy to United's talisman Rooney.
For Wayne's debut hat-trick against Fenerbahce, there is Kaka's first Milan derby. He created the opening goal with a defence-fracturing run and scored the second with his head, settling the game and taking the man-of-the-match award.
Rivaldo and Rui Costa were permanently displaced from playmaking duties.
Dramatic arrival
For that Rooney goal for Everton against Arsenal, there is the 2001 Rio-Sao Paulo Final. Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, to give him his full name, rarely even started for Sao Paulo's youth team but, as a substitute, struck twice in as many minutes and his team won 2-1.
So, Rooney and Kaka level in the dramatic arrivals stakes? Not when you hear the young Brazilian performed his cup magic four months after breaking his neck.
"I was 18 and I was on a water slide," recalled Kaka last week. "I went down head first and hit the bottom of the swimming pool, fracturing the sixth vertebra."
It was such a bizarre accident that nobody realised how serious the damage had been. "I went back to Sao Paulo, trained for two days, but I couldn't stand the pain, so they did more X-rays."
The doctors told Kaka he had been lucky not to be paralysed and that the danger was not over. As he lay in a neck brace, the teenager drew up a list of ambitions for a future he was at risk of losing.
'I live for goals and dreams'
"I live for goals and dreams," he said. "To be in the national team, to play in the World Cup, to win the Champions League. And personal achievements? To get married, to have children."
A little over a year after breaking his neck, Kaka had played for his country, scoring on his first start. In May 2002, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari called him up for Brazil's World Cup squad.
Like Ronaldo at USA 94, Kaka was taken along to watch, learn and be better prepared for the next tournament, although he went one better than his predecessor in playing 20 minutes of Brazil's final group game against Costa Rica.
"To get to the World Cup at 20, to be with the great players, was amazing," said Kaka. "You learn a lot from the players - to create, to keep trying even if you make a mistake, because at some point you will get it right.
"And you lose a bit of fear. You realise that, although the players are extraordinary, they are normal people."
Defenders remained at a loss to deal with such a sinewy, unconventionally direct attacker. His body upright and his strides high, Kaka is comfortable off either foot and teases balls past defenders. It's all done at pace and more or less in a straight line.
Turned down Chelsea
The big-money transfer to Europe was inevitable. In fact, Kaka's progress with Brazil forced Milan to bring forward by a whole season the £5.1million purchase they had planned for the summer of 2004.
Roman Abramovich suggested Kaka join his other club, CSKA Moscow, until the player had enough international caps to qualify for a UK work permit.
"Chelsea had an interest but it wasn't to go directly to Chelsea," explained Kaka. "It was to CSKA and from there to Chelsea. I would have gone without a problem. England, Spain and Italy are the most followed leagues in Brazil. But after negotiations with Milan became more concrete, the idea was to go to Italy."
There he has settled and matured into not only one of the nation's most admired footballers - Italy's professionals elected him their player of 2004 - but also an off-field star.
Posters adorn Milan of a handsome, bare-chested young man in Armani jeans. The designer describes his model (recently made a UN 'ambassador against hunger') as "my ideal champion, not just for his physical qualities, but his moral elegance, too".
Kaka is also at the forefront of adidas's marketing campaign in Brazil, but that is where the comparison with England's own footballing clothes-horse ends.
Kaka: 'I'm in favour of sex with love'
It is hard to imagine David Beckham turning up for an interview alone and wearing a silver bracelet inscribed with the word Jesus. He certainly would not go on to discuss his views on celibacy.
Twice voted his country's sexiest footballer and eagerly pursued by young female admirers - the Kakazetes - the implications of the Brazilian's faith make for good reading in the gossip columns.
"Everybody keeps talking about whether I have or have not had sex," he said. "This is something I don't talk about. If I say yes, then it's an attitude, and if I say no, everybody takes it differently.
"I'm in favour of sex with love, I defend this. Today, sex has become such a banal thing that people have sex without even knowing each other's names - this I am against. I defend sex with love. It's biblical: go forth and multiply. God isn't against sex."
On Wednesday, Kaka will walk out on the pitch where Beckham made his name and Rooney now calls home. The tie will represent the first time he has faced English opposition.
Fan of English football
"I am a fan of English football, there are great players," he said.
"For us at Milan, it is easy to watch on Saturdays when we are together. It really is a fantastic championship, it pleases me a lot.
"Manchester United is a game you anticipate, you want it to come. It's the European Cup, it's something else. It's the game you dream of when you're little."
And a chance to weigh two of world football's immense talents against each other.
"Besides being young, Rooney is a player who has demonstrated a very different ability to the English tradition," said Kaka. "He's a player I follow. He has a great future.
"I played in Sao Paulo at 18 and arrived in Milan at 21. Rooney had a similar story. He came to United with a fantastic contract and a huge transfer value, but it wasn't an accident - he is a great player."
Rooney, of course, has also been likened to the greatest Brazilian of them all. "It's very difficult to compare, because Pele is beyond normality," said Kaka.
"You have to be patient. It is at the end of the career that you can compare with many other players, make a balance of what you really did and who you really were.
"When I arrived in Italy, they started comparing me with Michel Platini and Gianni Rivera. At the end, we will see. Platini was European Footballer of the Year three times. With God's help, if I can get close to him, it would be nice."