Calcio Debate: If Kaka moves to Manchester City, is Soccer Dead?

A passionate Rossonero friend of mine, Carlo started this debate on the Internet and led me to pen my thoughts. Such “enticing” situations always pose dual perspectives with both schools of thought weighing pros and cons and vehemently theorizing why they are correct. However, without going into the intricacies of those, let us try to look at things in perspective.

First off, Man City has no perceptible soccer history of its own which, of course, does not mean it cannot have one in the years or decades to come. It has no European silverware save one, European Cup Winners Cup in 1970. Does it give it right to acquire superstars - of course it does!!! Let’s go back in history, 20 some years back. A certain Italian club (also azure hued) named Napoli acquired the then greatest (and arguably one of the game’s all time greats), a certain Argentine named Diego Armando Maradona who was plying his trade in another world class club Barcelona. Diego’s move to Barca and Napoli were both at world record prices. Napoli, who had no history till then (except a few runner up places in Serie A) would make this investment which would go a long way in giving them superlative returns with Italian and European success and firmly putting them in the world soccer map. To that extent, Man C’s acquisition of Kaka seems to be on similar lines and should not raise an eyebrow. However, that is pretty much where the similarities end.

Analyzing deeper down, one would see that Diego had a flurry of good players @ Napoli including the Italians Ferrara, Bagni, De Napoli, Zola and Latin Americans Alemao, Careca, Foncesa which led him to establish success there. Kaka, on the other hand does not have any world class player except the maverick Juninho and a host of over the hill Europeans like Hamann, Vassell, Mills etc. and though the sheikh can put in the petro dollars to bring in De Jong, Given, Terry et al to the faded blues, it will surely be an year or two before City even think of Europe. Forget Europe, heck City is not even sure of saving relegation this year. And that is where the basic difference lies. Also Diego, though entrusted with a star studded team @ Nou Camp including the likes of Bernd Schuster had a relatively unsuccessful career there leading him to change his colors. Napoli also relatively had a more successful history and with the teammates given to Diego, was a good choice for a move-over not to mention the world record transfer fee. Ricardo, on the other hand has been like Diego, a FIFA World player of the year, an important cog in the Milan wheel and someone around which the offensive Milan game revolves. He has been successful in the club for 6 odd years and prophesized that he wants to grow old at Milan. Moreover, playing in City would mean that Kaka has to shun playing @ Europe and sometimes @ the world level (FIFA World Club Cup) and be stuck in the anonymity of Manchester. For a soccer star of any ilk, not plying trade at the highest level would be the biggest bane and Kaka would be foolish to make a move like that. To me in a nutshell, trading the star-studded success at Milan to relative obscurity of Man City is plain stupid.

The other angle is the vision and road map of the club. While, Sheikh Mansoor might be on a momentary high and is all out to acquire one and sundry, he possibly is not a great soccer lover (we surely would have heard of him much earlier otherwise). Man City is one of his business ventures and he wants to rake in some money while at it. He is surely not here for the love of football and is not here to keep City in the top tier of English football for many decades to come (though I would be happy to be proven wrong). Even a club of Napoli’s stature went on a downward spiral after Diego’s departure only to come back to the mainstream after 15 long years, so it is not too hard to fathom a City future without vision. Add to that the clear chasm that would be created in the City dressing room with the multi-millionaire haves and the not to lucky have-nots and it will be a nightmare for Mark Hughes and the coaching and admin staff.

Therefore coming back to my friend Carlo’s topic, I do not think Kaka would or should move in the first place. However, Berlusconi and company might eventually coerce him to leave based on non-soccer reasons even if Rica pledges his unflinching loyalty to Milan, so much is the power of money in the 3rd millennium. Having stayed in Milan and followed the club for a long time, I can vouch for a fact that the Rossoneri are a passionate breed and the highs Rica would get playing and scoring at the San Siro would be light years ahead of the passion that the “Faded Blues” could even think of generating and that too in the remote eventuality of City grabbing some silverware. Literally soccer would not die as the coming years would surely see such mega deals but on a figurative note, soccer would die a nasty death in my book where the power of money would pulverize old age emotions like passion, dedication, pride and honour, love and allegiance to a club etc.

In the end folks Ricardo Kaka might move and if so, it would be the way the soccer cookie would crumble from now on.