Football Update

Yes They Should Sell

Even by today’s inflated standards, €100m is an obscene amount of money. From purely a business point of view, it would make sense for Milan to sell Kaka. He may still only be 26, but his game, a little like Cristiano Ronaldo, relies heavily on physical attributes such as pace, acceleration, and quick movements. Within a few years these will have declined, and it is debatable whether Kaka will then still be the same player he is today. Furthermore, the Brazilian had a miserable time with injuries last season, and there are still some lingering fitness doubts following the chronic knee problem that was recently operated on.

With the €100m that Milan receive for Kaka, they could buy three guaranteed world class players who would surely strengthen the team. Use the example of Zinedine Zidane’s world record €76m move from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2001. Luciano Moggi was heavily criticised for offloading arguably the best player in the world at the time. However, Moggi used the money recouped to sign three world class players in Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram and Pavel Nedved. At that time Juve were in a similar position to that which Milan find themselves in now. They hadn’t won the Scudetto for a few years, and needed revitalising. With these three purchases, Juventus again became the dominant force in Italian football, winning four of the next five Scudetti prior to the Calciopoli crisis.

Despite buying Mathieu Flamini (24), Marco Borriello (26) and Ronaldinho (28) this summer, Milan still have a very old team. The entire defence is over the age of the 30, while most of the midfield is also nearing or already past this landmark. A €100m war-chest would go a long way to injecting some top quality young players into the squad for the future.

No They Should Not Sell

While it is true that €100m is a lot of money, who could Milan realistically buy to adequately replace Kaka? There are very few players in the world who could live up to what he has done. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is one, but even if the Blaugrana decided to sell, he would cost more than €100m. It is also unlikely that a high profile Argentine would move to such a Brazilian environment. I still have my doubts over Cristiano Ronaldo, and he is probably set to join Real Madrid anyway. Even if he stays at Man Utd, his transfer fee would be astronomical. If you rattle down the list of other highly rated attacking midfielders – Gerrard, Sneijder, Ribery, Riquelme, Iniesta, Robinho, Diego, Van der Vaart – could any of these, assuming they are purchasable, replace Kaka and be value for money?

In simple terms, Kaka is probably irreplaceable in Milan’s current system. Ronaldinho, who plays in a similar position, has just signed but, as has been well documented, he is a huge gamble. The only way the Rossoneri could counter Kaka’s loss would be to change their style of play, which is what Juventus did when they sold Zidane. During the first few years of Marcello Lippi’s first reign in Turin, Juve played some of the most delightful and entertaining football in Europe, with Zidane at the centre of the action. When they sold him in 2002, they had already decided to go down the more efficient route, with workhorses in midfield instead of artists.

With Silvio Berlusconi as owner, this would simply never be allowed to happen at Milan. The club are Berlusconi’s joy, just like Chelsea are to Roman Abramovich. They must always play beautiful football, and so Kaka, someone who brings great enjoyment to the Italian President, must therefore stay.

It must also be noted that when Juve sold Zidane, he was coming off three relatively average seasons for his club. While Zizou was a revelation in his first two years at the Delle Alpi, he struggled to lift a team who had gone into decline from 98/99 onwards and, in truth, offloading Zidane, was a Moggi masterstroke. Kaka, on the other hand, may have been under-par last campaign, but this was only down to injuries, and despite this, he still finished as the club’s top scorer with 15 Serie A goals. Kaka is in his prime now at the age of 26, Zidane was approaching 30 back in 2001.


Carlo Garganese