"It matters a great deal who is going to win, but not at all who won"
Kaká and the World Cup
The Brazilian player believes his ability on the pitch is a divine gift Kaká, voted FIFA World Player of the Year in 2007, made the headlines in the 2010 in an unexpected way when he received two yellow cards in the game against Cote d’Ivoire. The incident was apparently described by the BBC TV pundits as “the worst red card in history”. He was given a second booking when Kader Keita fell holding his face after an innocuous collision between the two.Kaká’s coach, Dunga said “It was a totally unjustified dismissal. He was fouled and yet he was punished”.
Even Kaká’s grandmother had an opinion. The player told the press the following day, “I can’t repeat here what she said about the referee. She was happy with the way I played, but sad with the sending off. With all the respect that she has, she launched a bit of a tirade at the referee”.
Kaká, who earned respect for the grace with which he accepted the injustice, said afterwards: “It’s an uncomfortable situation. From now on I will police myself on the field because we have seen that the refereeing has been very severe. It’s up to me to police myself a little more. If I had been irresponsible, I’d be the first to come here and apologize. But that’s not what happened. It was a normal play followed by simulation.”
2010 is Kaká’s third World Cup. He has been European and Italian player of the year and a Champions’ League winner with AC Milan. With Brazil he has won the Confederations Cup in 2005 and 2009. He just needs the World Cup to complete the set. (While he does have a World Cup winner’s medal from 2002, it was only as a squad member. His only time on the pitch was 25 minutes as a substitute as Brazil beat Costa Rico 5-0 in a pool game).
When we met in Madrid last December, he told me an amusing tale of how he almost played a part in the 2002 World Cup final against Germany. Kaká was on the bench but he was not disappointed, “I was 20 years old at the time and it was my first World Cup. I felt like a world champion. It brings me great satisfaction to be able to say that I was involved in Brazil’s fifth World Cup win”.
The end of final was a bit chaotic. “With a few minutes to go, The Brazil coach, Felipe Scolari, told me to get ready to go on. I quickly changed into my match shirt and waited on the touchline. The play was on the far side of the pitch and the ball would not go out of play! Brazil were playing keep ball”. Before Kaká could get on the field, the referee blew the final whistle!
Christianity is sometimes seen as crutch for the weak. Surely the former World player of the year, who has won everything, and is rich and famous does not need religion? Kaká is in no doubt: “I need Jesus every day of my life. Jesus tells me, in the Bible, that without Him, I can’t do anything. I really believe that without Jesus, we can’t do anything. The gift and ability I have today to play football is because God gave it to me. It is a gift from God that I try to improve on every day. That is why I need Jesus in my life every day.
It has been widely reported that Kaká and his childhood sweetheart, Caroline Celico, waited until they were married to have sex. He was happy to talk about it. “It’s true, my wife and I were virgins when we married, following our spiritual and biblical values. People often look at us and think ‘You poor things. You were brainwashed and you didn’t know what you were doing’. I know very well what I did and what it represented in my personal life, my spiritual life, in my family life and in my marriage. I made a conscious choice because of the importance it has in the spiritual world. If I could give advice to any young person today, it would be that sex is a great blessing from God. What happened is that people made sex become trivial and that’s not what it was meant to be. Sex is a great blessing from God for the pleasure of both husband and wife after marriage and it is not the trivial or casual thing it has become nowadays”.
As Brazil close in on another World Cup, Kaká may yet have a chance to be remembered in a positive way for his contribution to the 2010 World Cup rather than for that bizarre red card.
This article appeared in The Times. online edition in June 2010.