Brazil got themselves knocked out of the 2004 Olympics football tournament at the weekend, beaten 1-0 in Chile by a Paraguay team who will go on to join Argentina as South America’s representatives in the finals in Greece this year.
As the world champions at senior, under-20 and under-17 levels, Brazil had hoped that this would be the year in which they finally won the only major football tournament to have evaded their grasp. And amid the wailing and gnashing of teeth, there are many voices saying it would all be different if Kakà had been there.
He was not. Instead he was scoring two slick goals in Milan’s 5-0 rout of Ancona at San Siro, a result that put him and his teammates back within sight of the top of Serie A. It was a performance that confirmed the impression that he is the most exciting new star in world football. No wonder his fellow countrymen lamented his absence in Viña del Mar.
Known to his parents as Ricardo Izecson Dos Santos Leite, the 21-year-old Kakà arrived in Europe at the beginning of the season at a cost of about £10-million, after a battle for his signature between the Milanese clubs and Chelsea, who apparently made a higher offer.
He served the first notice of his significance in October, when he dominated the Milan derby in a manner which suggested that here was a player of the highest class, with the potential to join the all-time greats of the game.
The biannual battle between these two historic giants of the Italian league is not always a pretty sight and more experienced men than the young Brazilian have been known to shrivel in its flames.
But having been chosen by his coach, Carlo Ancelotti, ahead of two rather better-known Portuguese speakers, Rui Costa and the great Rivaldo, Kakà was immaculate, showing no fear or hesitation as he played the fullest possible part in the game.
Positioned just behind the two strikers, Andrei Shevchenko and Filippo Inzaghi, he crowned his performance with a stealthy run into the goal mouth to head home the second of Milan’s goals in a 3-1 demolition.
He was soon being showered with praise by those former Milan greats who recognise beauty in football.
‘He has the game in his blood,†Jose Altafini said. ‘He reminds me of Platini because he’s always at the centre of the action, he combines well with his teammates, he can make runs from deep and he can shoot too.â€
Ray Wilkins, who distinguished himself as Milan’s playmaker in the 1980s, was happy to join the chorus.
‘It was a very mature performance from one so young,†he told me after the Inter game. ‘He reminded me a bit of Rai, who played in that position for Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain — a tall, elegant player, very self-possessed.
Being Brazilian, his technique is obviously wonderful, but his attitude to working for the team was impressive. Compliments to Ancelotti, who took the decision to play him in such an important match. But then Carlo was another midfield player of elegance and class.â€
Born in Brasilia, Kakà made his league debut for Sao Paulo in January 2001. Less than 18 months later he was climbing aboard a plane to Japan, where he was a member of Felipe Scolari’s World Cup-winning squad. Not surprisingly, he failed to dislodge any of the regulars from their place in the line-up.
But his effervescence was a highlight of Scolari’s open training sessions, and promises were already being made on his behalf. He is also handsome enough, in a young-McCartneyish way, to have David Beckham examining the small print of his endorsement contracts.
In Milan’s past few matches Ancelotti has developed a fluid and exciting new formation.
Kakà and the veteran Rui Costa operate behind Shevchenko, with the hard-working Rino Gattuso and Clarence Seedorf flanking a deep-lying playmaker, the elegant Andrea Pirlo.
The team whose stingy defence earned an unattractive victory in last year’s European Champions League final appear to have undergone a metamorphosis into the continent’s most irresistible attacking force.
Kakà ‘s nickname does not make life easier for him since in Italy the word, differently spelled but identically pronounced, means, well, merda. But it seems unlikely that opposing fans will be given the opportunity to devise chants exploiting the linguistic confusion.
Or if they do, they are unlikely to be taken seriously. —