In a surprising twist to the story that happens every year during the transfer window, not all is well at the Santiago Bernabeu. Real Madrid, flush with fresh and expensively shipped-in talent, have a simmering team crisis on their hands … and the season hasn’t even started yet.
With the arrival of Ronaldo to the club he has supported all his life — to the tune of £80 million — a media hurricane lay siege to Spain’s capital. Ronaldo replica shirts were selling at the rate of reportedly 300 to the minute. And 80 000 Real Madrid supporters filled the Bernabeu to capacity, all hoping to catch a glimpse of football, someone who best displays the best qualities of the beautiful game. Dexterity, speed, power, intelligence and skill all channelled through one man for the pleasure of the football masses, and now he was wearing white.
However, there are many people from around the world, let alone Spain, who say Lionel Messi, the Yoda of the round-balled game in his pomp, is the better example of the consummate footballer. He proved it in last season’s Champions League final didn’t he? Either way, it’s football’s chicken or egg question on a global level: Portugal or Argentina? Messi’s fleet-footedness or Ronaldo’s strength? The answer to that question tells you a lot about what type of football fan you are.
The game is actually blessed to have two players of such skill playing in the same era. But in all the hubris of Ronaldo’s arrival, one man has been forgotten. Kaka, still the darling of those who wear red at San Siro, was seen but two years ago as the best in the world. He won it all during his time at AC Milan, along with a World Cup winners’ medal with Brazil.
Question: Before Real Madrid broke the world record transfer fee with Ronaldo’s purchase, who held the record before that?
Answer: They did, when they bought Kaka from Silvio Berlusconi’s Milan for £56 million, though whether it was actually the world record lies in the hands of those concerned with the value of currency. Kaka was only able to enjoy the spotlight for two weeks before Ronaldo didn’t just steal his thunder, but changed the entire agenda.
Kaka works hard, leads a clean life (to the best of our knowledge anyway) and showed that he was more substance than man when deciding to stay at the San Siro after last season’s transfer window. Manchester City has just offered him £100 000 a week and AC Milan £100 million to make the move to Eastlands happen. It worked for Robinho, so why not Kaka? Instead, City’s oil money wasn’t enough to persuade the former Fifa World Player of the Year to leave the club that had been his nurturing grounds before he made the jump to the next level of football artisan.
However the situation this year is different. With AC Milan in financial trouble and time running out on his contract, Real Madrid picked their moment well. Milan and Kaka decided that the best thing to do was let it happen. He made his arrival in Madrid and the greeting was enthusiastic and rancorous, but in comparison to Ronaldo’s stronger musk, he became last week’s story.
Kaka has now engaged the Madrid board in a blinking contest, which all began last week after saying: “Ronaldo is a fine player. One of the best in the world. But is he as good as me? That is hard to say. People say he is the best, others say I am the best. It’s a discussion. That is all that I am saying.”
The Madrid board, with President Ramon Calderon taking a personal interest in the matter, called their new acquisition to a meeting the following day to discuss his statement. That was what Kaka was told, but it was an ambush. Once at the meeting, Kaka was dressed down by Calderon in front of the whole board. Reportedly, Calderon told the Brazilian that Real had help save AC Milan from financial ruin, and that he should be grateful to be wanted by a great club like Real Madrid.
Kaka, who till this point had been the model of professional behaviour, snapped. Witnesses say he called the board “child labour merchants”. He was alluding to concerns from NGO groups that the majority of their replica shirts are made in Vietnam by labourers, many of them being children. Madrid, and their sponsor, adidas, have vehemently denied this.
Before he stormed out, the midfield dynamo shouted: “This club is a stage show. I won’t be upstaged. I want a contract that is better than Ronaldo’s or I go.” Where he would go is an interesting question, but not the country of destination. The English Premier League would welcome Kaka with open arms. Talk from Manchester is that Mark Hughes is preparing the same £100 million bid from last season, with the blessing of Abu Dhabi Holdings. The big four from England are also said to have their agents in the area, waiting for an opportunity.
The start of the new Galacticos era certainly doesn’t bode well for Madrid. With a civil war threatening to break out between the competing market forces (Kaka merchandise is Coca-Cola compared to Ronaldo’s Pepsi), team mates are choosing sides. Real No 1 Iker Casillas was asked the day after the meeting between the board and Kaka what the situation was on the ground. His reply was as quick as a parry around the post: “It’s us versus them. I have no further comment.”
The future of the future Galacticos is on the line, and with the team split down the middle, their enemies in Barcelona, Spain and the rest of Europe must be on their summer holidays in the south of France quietly chuckling with glee. They will be saying to themselves “Who needs to beat them on the pitch if they do it for us in the dressing room?”
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