Kaka looked back on his time at Real Madrid in an interview. The Brazilian playmaker came over as Ballon d’Or winner from AC Milan, but could never live up to the high expectations, partly due to injury. Kaká says to the Spanish newspaper marca that the day of his departure at the Royal his most beautiful was because of the praise of President Florentino Pérez.
When the sports newspaper Kaká asks about his best memory of Real, he comes up with a surprising answer. “It may sound strange, but I prefer the day I left. I spoke to Florentino and he told me that they saw me as a great professional who had done everything to get great results in Madrid. But the injuries and the few minutes the coaches gave me didn’t allow me to do that. That was a great satisfaction because I felt the doors of the club were open.”
Kaká arrived in the Spanish capital in the summer of 2009. Pérez promised his supporters galactico-like purchases and fulfilled them with the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Xabi Alonso and therefore also Kaká. However, under trainers Manuel Pellegrini and later José Mourinho, Kaká never really came into his own, despite his 120 appearances for the club. He was good for 29 goals and 39 assists.
The 2002 world champion returned to Milan in 2013, before moving to the United States the following year to play for Orlando City. He would no longer reach the level that Kaká reached before his transfer to Madrid. Still, he is grateful to Real for the opportunity and how he has been treated at the Santiago Bernabéu. “That’s why you will never hear me speak ill of Madrid or Jose Mourinho. When I met Florentino at the Champions League final in Paris this year, we embraced each other.”
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