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Kaka is an icon. He is a living Brazilian legend, and just an amazing player. He burst onto the scene while playing for AC Milan from 2003 to 2009, as a creative genius able to create goals from absolutely nothing. He played so well that he was awarded with the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 2007. He moved to Real Madrid in 2009 for the third highest transfer fee ever, at €65 million.
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He began promisingly at Madrid and looked to be a future legend of the club, but then in August 2010, he underwent knee-surgery and was scheduled to be sidelined for 4 months. Many fans thought he would never be the same again, and that would have been a good bet.
He made his long awaited return in January of 2011, and scored his first goal since his comeback just 6 days after his first match. Kaka slowly came back to his best. With the competition of Ozil keeping him out of the team, he has only managed to get some playing time in Champions League matches. He made his opportunities count with 5 assists in the CL last season.
This season, Kaka has been outstanding. While Ozil is severely out of form and Modric is still adapting to life at Madrid, Kaka has played better than both of them, and better than most of the Madrid players. His remarkable revival for Madrid has not gone unnoticed at the Brazil camp. He received his first international call-up since 2010 for the friendly against Iraq, on the 11th of October 2012. He scored and got an assist in that match. Mano Menezes kept him in the starting team for the next match against Japan, where he got on the score-sheet yet again.
With his injury record and occasional inconsistency counting against him, will his form and talent keep him in both teams? No. The younger players (Oscar and Ozil) will keep him out of both teams. Kaka will have to move from Madrid to be a permanent fixture in a club’s starting XI.
With Oscar playing as excellently as he is now, Kaka will probably get time in these friendly matches, but come the World Cup in Brazil, his successor Oscar will take over the reigns. I do hope he gets more time to play, because he is a truly great player, and also a victim of his own circumstances.
