Kaka profile: At his best Brazilian star made football look simple but he lacked the guile of genuine genius, says Tim Vickery
Kaka was the best player in the world a decade ago, the last footballer to win the Ballon d'Or before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's domination. Tim Vickery assesses his career after Brazil star plays his final game for Orlando City
IT MAY be easy for younger fans to take the era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for granted.
There is a quick way to put them right. Before the duo started monopolising the FIFA World Player of the Year award, the last man to win it – all the way back in 2007 – was Kaka.
The Brazilian, now aged 35, is bringing the latest stage of his career to an end with the recent announcement that he is to leave MLS club Orlando City.
It has been a magnificent career.
But it not one that history will judge to be anywhere near the likes of Messi and Ronaldo – and maybe even Ronaldinho Gaucho, a previous World Player of the Year, who shone more briefly but more gloriously.
Kaka was very different from Ronaldinho.
The latter was an instinctive talent, but wayward, unable to find the focus to sustain a career.
Kaka, on the other hand, was diligent and ultra-professional.
From an upper middle class background, rather than resting on his privilege, he used it as a springboard to learn more and apply himself better – not least when an accident in a swimming pool at the age of 18 put his very career in doubt.
Kaka sat down, worked out a ten point plan for himself and then set about crossing those achievements off his list.
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Liverpool fans have special reason to remember him.
Their two Champions League finals against Milan do so much to highlight the type of player that Kaka has been.
2007 in Athens is the highpoint of the career.
Kaka was top scorer in the Champions League that season, and set up what turned out to be the winning goal in the final when his pass sent Felipe Inzaghi away to put Milan two goals up.
By this stage, though, Liverpool were chasing the game, and had withdrawn Javier Mascherano, who had been keeping Kaka on a tight leash.
It was the reverse of what had happened in Istanbul two years earlier.
That night, Liverpool lined up without a holding midfielder, and Kaka ran riot.
Milan went three goals ahead, two of them set up by Kaka.
At half time, on came Dietmar Hamann, and it was a different story.
Liverpool hit back to draw the game and win on penalties.
These matches say much about Kaka’s strengths, and his weaknesses too.
A superb athlete, with power and sustained pace, he could make ground quickly – and had the priceless virtue of being able to take good decisions while moving at pace.
At his best, he made football look very simple.
But take the space away and slow him down and he was less effective, lacking the guile and surprise of genuine genius.
And once his body started to rebel, his decline was inevitable.
A big money move to Real Madrid in 2009 proved a flop. It was hard to be a galactico with serious knee and groin problems.
He returned to Milan for the 2013/4 season, without being able to relive the level of his 03-09 prime.
And after a brief loan spell back at Sao Paulo, where the story began, he has played three somewhat underwhelming years in the USA.
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His time with the national team is also something of an anti-climax, although he was clutching a World Cup winners’ medal when he had only just turned 20.
But he had been taken for the 2002 tournament for experience, only making one quick appearance as a substitute in a meaningless group game against Costa Rica.
Four years later he was part of a much hyped - in fairness over-hyped - Brazil team in the 2006 World Cup.
Together with Ronaldinho, plus forwards Ronaldo and Adriano, he formed a ‘magic quartet’ – which always looked better on paper than it did on the pitch.
The team was top heavy and unbalanced, and forced to work back in midfield, Kaka paid the price.
He was the match winner in the opening game against Croatia, but got worse as the tournament went on, and cut a dismal figure as Brazil were deservedly beaten in the quarter finals by France.
South Africa 2010 was supposed to be his tournament.
By now the side was built around him. Injury problems, though, were already wearing him down, and coach Dunga, snarlingly out of his depth, was unable to build an attractive side.
Both Kaka and Brazil slid disappointingly to another quarter final exit.
This left 2014 on home ground as a possible last hurrah.
With the team under intense pressure, having a wise old head like Kaka in the camp might have been a blessing.
Coach Mano Menezes certainly though so, and successfully recalled Kaka to the national team in 2012.
But then he was sacked, and new man Luiz Felipe Scolari thought differently. The door closed.
There would be no fourth World Cup for Kaka, no late chance to snatch a bigger place for himself in football history
