Editorial

Spanish Inquisition: Can Kaka Really Be The New Zidane At Real Madrid?

The Galacticos are back, so is Zidane, and Kaka has big shoes to fill, writes Goal.com's Sulmaan Ahmad...

Jun 10, 2009 4:00:00 PM

Florentino Perez, Kaka, and Zinedine Zidane - Marca's 'dream team' for Real Madrid this summer? (Marca)

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Florentino Perez, Kaka, and Zinedine Zidane - Marca's 'dream team' for Real Madrid this summer? (Marca)

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In euros, Kaka's transfer to Real Madrid, with a fee not yet formally disclosed, is said to be a few short of the world record €73m, set by the same club under the same presidency and same transfer policy when they signed Zinedine Zidane, eight years ago.

In pounds, converting the two transfer values has Zidane at £46m and Kaka comfortably ahead at around £55m. In England, this transfer is being considered the world record.

As obscene and surreal as the sums of money passed between clubs for players seem to many an average fan, there was and remains an air of acceptance around the Zidane deal. The Frenchman is considered by a vast majority to be one of the greatest players of all time and thus, in signing him, money was no object. He deserved to be worth that much more than Figo. More than anyone.

Kaka is now either right up alongside him or ahead of him, depending on your currency, and nobody can quite get their heads around the amount of money involved. So many are tightening their own purse strings in the height of the global recession and view this is an obscene abuse of power on the part of Florentino Perez.

Obscene, maybe, but these are the actions of a club with wounded pride, trying to redress a squad balance that had been left offset by Ramon Calderon and Pedja Mijatovic. They know what they need, and they need it by any means necessary, as soon as possible. One per summer won't do in this era, they're making up for lost time.

As the first, Kaka will be particularly iconic, yet he is not held in the same regard as Zidane, and the 'Real' challenge for him will be whether he can enhance his legend at the Bernabeu, as Zizou did between 2001 and 2006.

Though he didn't want to leave Milan, Kaka has made it clear that he was both encouraged to accept for the good of the club and also personally eager that, if he were to leave, it should be for Madrid. He is, like Zidane was, where he wants to be, having already intimated he would like to retire at the Bernabeu, as Zizou did. He is two years younger than Zidane was at the time of his move, but both players were perhaps just past what many had regarded as their peak at the time.

Zizou defied his critics and it will be up to Kaka to now do the same. The only question mark hanging over his potential success in Spain is the state of his knee. It has hampered his playing time ever since he won the Ballon d'Or and there has been no discernable, irrefutable sign that this is set to change.

Madrid did a brave and sensible thing in leaving Arjen Robben sidelined for months on end in order for him to fully rehabilitate and be the still frail but mostly fit player he is today. Do they have the restraint to do it again - with a bigger, better signing - if that's what it takes? You wouldn't think so, even if the options at the disposal of Manuel Pellegrini are likely to be so vastly superior to those of Bernd Schuster that it hardly bears thinking about.

Kaka yesterday revealed he doesn't want the "responsibility" of directly succeeding Zidane by taking his famous No. 5 shirt, but then again, injuries or not, this has never been a man to shy away from responsibility. More likely he just thinks, like many of us, that an attacking player donning the No. 5 is more than a little peculiar.

Like Zidane, Kaka will find himself at the centre of all of Madrid's attacks and will restore majesty to Madrid's midfield that has been missing for the last three years. Their styles differ somewhat, with Kaka being less of a playmaker and more of a pacey forward, but their positions and yes, their responsibilities, will be the same.

Kaka is a man that knows his responsibility and he knows what he can do. If Florentino Perez delivers on the rest of his Galactico recruitment this summer and if the squad balance is kept in check by general director Jorge Valdano, sporting director Miguel Pardeza and of course Manuel Pellegrini as coach, then there is little standing in the way of the Brazilian going up in lights alongside Zizou himself as an icon of Madrid and an all-time legend of world football.

Sulmaan Ahmad, Goal.com

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