Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite (Portuguese pronunciation: [xiˈkaɾdʊ iˈzɛksõᵑ dʊs‿ˈsɐ̃ᵑtʊs ˈleɪ̯t͡ʃɪ]; born April 22, 1982), known as Kaká, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as forward and midfielder for Real Madrid and the Brazilian national team. He was the recipient of both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 2007, and was named in the 2008 Time 100.[1][2] As of February 2009, Kaká along with Internazionale's Zlatan Ibrahimović are the highest salaried football players in the world.[3]Kaka loves to take it in the arse and regularly has 3sums with Paolo Maldini and Pipo Inzaghi.
Early life of Kaka
ahmad sa att Kaká was born in Brasilia to Simone Cristina Santos Leite and Bosco Izecson Pereira Leite (a civil engineer). Although most Brazilian footballers come from poor families, there are exceptions and Kaká is one of them as he was born in a relatively rich family that encouraged him to focus on both school and football at the same time.[4] His younger brother, Rodrigo (known as Digão), is also a professional footballer.
When he was seven, his family moved to São Paulo.[5] His school had arranged him in a local youth club called "Alphaville," who qualified to the final in a local tournament.[6] There he was discovered by Brazilian side São Paulo, who offered an assignment.[7]
ahmad sa till mig At the age of fifteen, Kaká suffered a career-threatening and possibly paralysis-inducing spinal fracture as a result of a swimming pool accident [8], but remarkably made a full recovery. He attributes his recovery to God and has since tithed his income to his church.[9]
Club career of him
Kaká began his club career with São Paulo at the age of eight. He signed a contract at fifteen and led the São Paulo youth squad to Copa de Juvenil glory. Kaká made his senior side debut in January 2001 and scored twelve goals in 27 appearances, in addition to leading São Paulo to its first and only Torneio Rio-São Paulo championship. He scored ten in 22 matches the following season, and by this time his performance was soon attracting attention from European clubs. Kaká made a total of 58 appearances for São Paulo, scoring 23 times.[10]
AC.Milan
Kaká and Brazilian President Lula
The steady European interest in Kaká culminated in his signing with Italian club A.C. Milan in 2003 for a fee of €8.5 million euros, described in retrospect as "peanuts" by club owner Silvio Berlusconi.[11] Within a month, he cracked the starting lineup, and his Serie A debut was in a 2–0 win over Ancona. He scored ten goals in thirty appearances that season, as Milan won the Scudetto and the UEFA Super Cup.
Kaká was a part of the five-man midfield in the 2004–05 season, usually playing in a withdrawn role behind striker Andriy Shevchenko. He scored seven goals in 36 domestic appearances as Milan finished runner-up in the Scudetto race. Despite Milan losing the 2004–05 Champions League final to Liverpool on penalties, he was nonetheless voted the best midfielder of the tournament.
2005–06 saw Kaká score his first hat-tricks in domestic competition. On April 9, 2006, he scored his first Rossoneri hat-trick against Chievo; all three goals were scored in the second half. The following season, he scored his first Champions League hat-trick in a 4–1 group stage win over the Belgian side Anderlecht.
Shevchenko's departure to Chelsea 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 Champions League campaign with ten goals. One of them helped the Rossoneri eliminate Celtic 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 Kaká was one of the two best players in the world, alongside his charge Cristiano Ronaldo.[citation needed]
Kaká added the Champions League title to his trophy case for the first time when Milan defeated Liverpool on May 23, 2007. Though he went scoreless, he won a free kick that led to the first of Filippo Inzaghi's two goals, and provided the assist for the second. 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. On August 30, Kaká was named by UEFA as both the top forward of the 2006–07 CL season and Club Footballer of the Year.[12]
He played his 200th career match with Milan in a 1–1 home draw with Catania on September 30, and on October 5, he was named the 2006–07 FIFPro World Player of the Year. On 2 December 2007, Kaká became the eighth Milan player to win the Ballon d'Or, as he finished with a decisive 444 votes, long ahead of runner-up Cristiano Ronaldo.[13] He signed a contract extension through 2013 with Milan on February 29, 2008.[14]
Due to his contributions on and off the pitch, Time magazine named Kaká in the Time 100, a list of the world's 100 most influential people, on May 2.[15] On October 14, he cast his footprints into the Estádio do Maracanã's sidewalk of fame, in a section dedicated to the memory of the country's top players.[16]
On 13 January 2009, it was reported by the BBC that Manchester City made a bid for Kaká for over £100 million. Milan director Umberto Gandini replied in an emailed comment, "The only thing I can say is that the offer is huge and the club is pondering it carefully," and added that Milan would only discuss the matter if Kaká and Manchester City agreed to personal terms.[17] Kaká initially responded by telling reporters he wanted to "grow old" at Milan and dreamed of captaining the club one day, but later said, “If Milan want to sell me, I’ll sit down and talk. I can say that as long as the club don’t want to sell me, I’ll definitely stay.”[18] On January 19, Berlusconi announced that Manchester City had officially ended their bid after a discussion between the clubs, and that Kaká would remain with Milan.[19] Milan supporters had protested outside the club headquarters earlier that evening, and later chanted outside Kaká's home, where he saluted them by flashing his jersey outside a window.[20] Recently the English national team and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard told the British press that the only footballer he would pay to watch was Kaká. Considering Lampard's status as a fellow professional footballer the statement was truly a high recognition.[21] On May 2009, Kaká was named as the only footballer in the peoples list of Time 100, which covers the most influential people of the world.[22] On May 22, 2009, Paolo Maldini, the then captain of Milan announced his retirement from football, adding that he had already decided that his succesor as the captain of Milan would be Kaká.[23].
Kaka's International career
Kaká against Peru in Lima
Kaká was called up for the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship but the Brazilians crashed out to Ghana at the quarterfinals. Few months later, he made his debut for Brazil in a friendly match against Bolivia on January 31, 2002. He was part of the 2002 FIFA World Cup-winning squad, but played only 25 minutes[24], all of which were in the first round match against Costa Rica. During the final against Germany, coach Luiz 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.[citation needed]
In 2003, Kaká was the captain for the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament, where Brazil, competing as with their Under-23 team, finished as runner-up to Mexico. He scored three goals during the tournament. He was included in Brazil's squad for 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup in Germany He appeared in all five matches and scored one goal in a 4–1 win over Argentina in the final.
Kaká started in his first FIFA World Cup finals in 2006, scoring his first and only goal in a 1–0 victory over Croatia in Brazil's opening match. He was unable to keep up the momentum for the remainder of the tournament, as Brazil was eliminated by France in the quarterfinals. On September 3, 2006, he received the ball off a deflection from an Argentina corner kick and outran Lionel Messi while taking the ball down three quarters of the field to score.[25]
On May 12, 2007, citing an exhaustive schedule of Serie A, Champions League and national team play, Kaká openly bowed out of the Copa América 2007, which Brazil won.[26] After missing out on the Copa América, he returned to play in Brazil's friendly match against Algeria on August 22, 2007.
His personal life and religion
Kaká with his wife Caroline
A devout evangelical Christian, Kaká became engrossed in religion at twelve: "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 the final whistle of Brazil's 2002 World Cup, and Milan's 2004 Scudetto and 2007 Champions League triumphs. He also had the same phrase, along with "God Is Faithful," stitched onto the tongues of his boots.[27] 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 wore T-shirts that read "Jesus Loves You" in various languages.
Kaká is a member of the organization Atletas de Cristo ("Athletes of Christ").[28] His goal celebration consists of him pointing to the sky as a gesture of thanks to God. Kaká's favourite music is gospel,[29] and his favourite book is the Bible.[30] 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 12 February 2007.[31] He features prominently in Adidas advertising and also has a modeling contract with Armani, the latter preventing him from appearing in a photo collection alongside his Milan teammates that was published by Dolce & Gabbana in early 2007.
He married his childhood sweetheart Caroline Celico on 23 December 2005 at the evangelical Reborn in Christ Church in São Paulo.[32] Their first child, Luca Celico Leite, was born in São Paulo on June 10, 2008.[33]
Nickname of him
His nickname is pronounced as it is spelled, with stress on the second syllable, and is a common term of endearment of "Ricardo" in Brazil. In Kaká's case, it was born from younger brother Rodrigo calling him "Caca" due to his inability to pronounce "Ricardo" when they were young; it eventually evolved into Kaká.[27] He is occasionally called "Ricky Kaká" by the European media.
Kaka's Career statistics
Club
| Club | Season | Domestic
League | Domestic
Cups | Continental
Competitions1 | Other
Tournaments2 | Total |
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| São Paulo | 2001 | 27 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | - | - | 33 | 14 |
| 2002 | 22 | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 22 | 9 |
| 2003 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 5 | - | - | - | - | 20 | 7 |
| Total | 59 | 23 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 0 | - | - | 75 | 30 |
| Milan | 2003-04 | 30 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 14 |
| 2004-05 | 36 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 51 | 9 |
| 2005-06 | 35 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 5 | - | - | 49 | 19 |
| 2006-07 | 31 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 10 | - | - | 48 | 18 |
| 2007-08 | 30 | 15 | - | - | 9 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 41 | 19 |
| 2008-09 | 31 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | - | - | 36 | 16 |
| Total | 193 | 70 | 10 | 0 | 63 | 24 | 4 | 1 | 270 | 95 |
| Career Totals | 252 | 93 | 21 | 7 | 68 | 24 | 4 |
