[Luca... an Italian name. it seems the ties between Kaka and Italy are strong]

"Sono state capite male le mie dichiarazioni": così Carlos Dunga ha ricucito lo strappo tra Kakà e la nazionale brasiliana da cui il Pallone d'Oro era stato escluso proprio dallo stesso Dunga qualche giorno fa. "Tornerà in Nazionale quando il Milan sarà più generoso con noi" aveva detto il selezionatore verdeoro.

I don't like her that much, but I admit she's so hot, & sexy!

Not one of the exotics (like Totti, Figo, Ashley Cole, etc have), but something like a girl next door.

I'm going to wait till we actually have the interview...

I was considering translating it today ... I have a lot to do, I'll get it translated tomorrow evening 

To be honest she's fine. Sort of a lady you'd take home to introduce to your mother, I mean. Beautiful and warm radiance. Not one of the exotics (like Totti, Figo, Ashley Cole, etc have), but something like a girl next door. And frankly, I'd take the girl next door any given Sunday.

All said and done they're a good couple. Right up at the top, along with Santa Cruz and his woman.

Out of curiosity, why are you guys so sure he's lying?

Here's what he said about Kaka: Kaká "não quer ir à Olimpíada porque ele está muito cansado".

Out of curiosity, why are you guys so sure he's lying?

Kaka': "I love Italy, the Russians surprised me at the Euros, and I am with Milan in the good and bad times!"


In an exclusive interview to Brazilian magazine 'iG Esporte', the best player in the world for the year 2007 talked about several topics which pertain to him with the Selecao and Milan, and this was while he was at Sao Paolo's headquarters rehabilitating.



Q. In Sao Paolo's youth team in 2001, you were a sub for Harisson. Then after a couple of months, you started playing in the first team for Sao Paolo and a champion of 'Torneio Rio-SP'. In such a young age, you became the number one loved star in Milan. Everything happened so fast. Did you expect this ? And to be precise out doing Harisson ?

Ricky: "In all honesty, it was a surprise. The coach of the professional team was Fadao, he called the youth teams coach, Eidino. He was requesting a couple of players to reorganize his team for 'Torneio Rio-SP'. And the youth coach told him: 'I cant give you a lot, I will only give you a selected few' and I went alone because I was a reserve for the youth team. That is why I didn't expect that things would turn out this way and this fast. I went, and the first team coach put me in for the first time in a Wednesday match and which ended with a scoreless draw against Botafogo (spell) in Morombi, Rio-SP. Then on Sunday I also participated in another match between Sao Paolo and Santos and I scored a goal, and Sao Paolo won 4-2, and I continued playing until the the famous match against Botofagio, when I entered the match and scored two goals right away!"


Q. And Harisson ? How did he turn out ? And do you still talk with him ?

Ricky: "I watched him play with the club against Goarani and bonti. And I also met up with him once in Japan but we didn't talk about anything. He also was a professional player for Sao Paolo. Me, him, Rinatino Oliviera, Fabio Simplicio, Julio Baptista, and Juan .. We each had a chance, and we each took the chance thatw as given to us."


Q. But you didn't go crazy because you reached such heights in your professional career ? The other youths, had they gotten the chance you got, they would have directly gone to buy an exotic car ..

Ricky: "I didn't reach that level of craziness because of my parents, because of the good base that they have given me, education and culture. When you are young, you think you know everything,. But my parents in that period were very important. I have learned a lot from them and gained experience. And even till today they continue to give me advice, but I also have my own experiences and know what will serve me on my personal and professional lives."


Q. You have won awards on the international and local levels, either by being voted the governing body of football FIFA or France Football magazine. From this aspect, how do you keep your motivation in line ? One time during an interview with the magazine 'Placar' you put a list of '10 goals' you wanted to achieve in your professional football career- and you accomplished all of that. Today, do you have a new set of goals ?

Ricky: "I don't think I can put up anymore goals .. That story was a beautiful one, and I still get goose bumps whenever I reminisce on how I accomplished my goals, till this day. That list which I put in 10 goals, I accomplished all of them, and the last of them was to play in a big European team. Today, I have accomplished everything, and my plan is to continue winning. Because I want to win it allover again: the World Cup, the FIFA award, Serie A, the Champions League, the Club World Cup .. Because the feelings are different, and the circumstances are different. But the list of 10 goals no longer exists."


Q. Not even one ?

Ricky: "Today, I plan designate my goals depending on my next season. But what is it that I didn't get ? In truth I don't see anything else to win really."


Q. Once you said you wanted to become like Maldini in Milan ..

Ricky: "Ohh, yes that is possible! To become an important symbol of the team. To be a flag .. To be honest with you, I see myself today as a flag of Milan. But I want to be captain too, that is my next goal! And to continue my football adventure in Italy, to continue with Milan, I want to end my career with Milan and then work for Milan."


Q. You want to be the 'New Maldini' or do you want to find new fans in other countries: when you think about the future, which of them appeals more to you ?

Ricky: "My highest of idols are two greats, Rogero Senni (Sao Paolo) and Paolo Maldini, who stayed at their clubs for such a long time. I think I learned something very important: In the good and bad you should not show instability in where you stand. Today I play in a great club which always looks for the highest of achievements and never fails to perform at the highest of levels. Then we have Rogero who spent so many years with Sao Paolo without winning any title. Then he finally won everything and became the most decorated goalkeeper in the club's history. To equal Maldini, that is impossible: this year he will complete his 25th season as a player for Milan, a quarter of a century, and to break that number it would be impossible. But to be a symbol of the team, and one day the captain, that is what I hope to accomplish in the future."


Q. Dunga told the press that it was not important to have both Kaka' and Ronaldinho in the Selecao. Do you agree ? What would you tell him, if you saw him in the airport tomorrow for example ?

Ricky: "No, I read the interview and it wasn't like 'Kaka and Ronaldinho wont serve their national team'. He was asked whether there were indispensable players in the Selecao. And he replied no, and gave an example of Pele. I agree with him on this. I love playing with the Selecao, and whenever I get the chance I wouldn't turn down playing for the national team. So, if I met Dunga tomorrow, I would tell him 'depend on me!'. I look forward to the future, when I am well, I want him to depend on me whenever he needs me."


Q. Do you find the responsibility that is placed on players like you and Ronaldinho, too extensive and that it goes beyond your professional lives and into your personal lives ? For example your holidays ?

Ricky: "I find that the responsibility is extensive, yes. But I also tend to think on what is best for everyone. In an equal way, I think of what is good and not just for me alone, but for the Selecao and for Milan. About my absence from the qualifiers, that matter was out of my hands, as I had to do an operation, I had no choice. If I had gone with the national team right after my operation, and limped on the field, they would have booed me, without considering that I had just come out of an operation to my knees. If I don't give them a performance, they would tell me to go home, so how can I make all parties be happy ? Of course I had to take the best option. When I am fine physically I will give both legs to the national team, but if I am not well physically how do you expect me to put my health in danger ?"


Q. Did you watch the Euros ? And do you agree that the European football has surpassed the football we have here ?

Ricky: "I don't know .. But the last cup, before two years we were criticized. Even in the Euros the criticized Italia and said that they played horrible football. It was only two years, and I doubt that a lot had changed. Things change when sometime passes, the team changes and the formation changes. Me, for example I have never watched Spain in such form.  I watch some games, but not all of them, the Spaniards have an attacking touch with the ball. The German football, is a classical one with a 4-4-2, and everyone expected them to win. But the Russians were the big surprise .."


Q. Did you watch the player with the #10 shirt in Russian Arschevin while he played in the Euros ?

Ricky: "No, he was a surprise! I laughed when Zidane commented: 'I don't know his name, but he astonished me!'. And that is how things go, I see a whole batch of new generation coming out of European football."


Q. The new generation as opposed to your Milan which suffers a lot from the critics who say that its an old team. Do you think Milan is in need of a complete rebuilding ?

Ricky: "I think Milan always renews the team and I state this when I talk. Because what I have learned in Milan is that the mentality of the team is passed down from one generation to the next. You don't really know what I'm talking about until you play alongside Maldini, or Seedorf, .. And when you learn what you like best from those players you start implementing it on yourself. I learned a lot from them. When I came to Milan, I only had two titles in my CV: 'RIO-SAO PAOLO', and the Club World Cup with Sao Paolo, of which I didn't participate in except for a fraction of the game because of my age- only 20 yrs old-. Then I learned how t win. I learned that from them, and now Pato will learn from the men with the most experience. In football, experience means a lot! And then you have to mix experience with youth, everyone knows that. And it is completely wrong to think that you have to rebuild the whole team, just because you lost one title."


Q. In your last years at Milan, you started to play in a deeper role upfront, and your name 'KAKA' is now considered a forward in the official site of the club. Was that your request ? What would you prefer to play as a forward or midfielder ?

Ricky: "I played in this position ever since Shevchenko left Milan .. Ricardo oliviera came but didn't succeed here, there were a few problems, and then I started playing in a more forward role: 4-4-1-1, when I started to play in that position the whole team started to play better .. At the beginning I didn't like it cause I was playing close to the goal, but now I don't have a preference really."


Q. The controversy that happened between you and Ancelotti at the end of one of the Italian league's games, which all the Italian cameras caught on tape, what was it about ?

Ricky: "Yes that happened. I was telling Ancelotti 'you have to take me back to midfield, I don't like to play upfront, I told you this before.' and he replied 'I didn't make you play there' and I replied 'ok, but you push me to play in that position' but today I have full confidence in my ability to play in that position. The situation has changed, I now perform my new role with a lot of satisfaction. Sometimes I go back a bit, but as of now I am comfortable at playing as a second striker for Milan. I am not a box striker and not restrained to the box, this is a very good thing. I have the freedom to play on both sides, without any problems. I learned this from Milan, I learned to play from the back and now I learned how to play in this position. Then the club changed me from a midfielder to a forward."


Q. What do you want for your son Luca in life ? To be a player, a priest, or a politician ?

Ricky: "During my life, my father encouraged me to do what I felt I wanted to do. I have always loved playing football and dreamed of becoming a professional footballer. Then my parents talked to me, they said: 'you want to be a player ? you need to first study and to balance the two. And now if you want to become a player, these are the difficulties. If you want to be an engineer like your father, there are difficulties. Everything in life has difficulties, and you choose what you want from life' and that is exactly what I will do with my son. To be honest, I don't have any preferences. If he wanted to become a player, I will support him. Because I see a lot of people who are forced into doing something to please their fathers, and this translates to anger and big problems."


Q. Up to which level did you reach in your studies ? Will you continue studying in college ? If your answer is yes, what will you study ?

Ricky: "I finished my high school. Maybe I will continue my college education after retiring. I finished my high school studies at the age of 17 and when I turned 18 I started my working life. I had a year to choose what I wanted to do. I was about to choose physical education, but right then and there I started my professional football career, and so I didn't get a chance to go to college. Two years later, I started to think that maybe physical education isn't for me, and that I would rather have a degree in management. And today I think that if I start my studies again, it will be either in management or economics. That is why I think that for an 18 year old, it is very difficult for him to choose what to do in life."


Q. The birth of your son, Luca, has it changed your insight on work ? Like you don't sleep as much as you would at night, have you started thinking that moving around a lot is not healthy ?

Ricky: "Up till today, Luca's birth hasn't changed my insight on work., because moving from one place to another isn't in my agenda, even before his birth! But for sure, you never know what the future might hold for you: Maybe one day I am faithful for Milan, but Milan no longer likes the way I play and wants to sell me. If that was the case, I would change countries because I don't want to be radical, but what is obvious is that such a change wouldn't happen all the time. I have seen people do that, and I see that their sons are the ones who suffer. But the biggest change that could ever happen to me after Luca's birth, is the responsibility. Also you will suffer alot from the perspective of concentration .. Or maybe not ?! Some people see it as tranquility (he laughs)"


Q. You are aware that your son will grow up in Italy ? Are you all knowledgeable on the Italian culture in a way that you don't feel left out ?

Ricky: "I love Italia. I live it a lot, and you must not forget that I am Italian. I am now an Italian citizen and so is my wife and we are no longer foreigners in Italia. Hence, my son Luca will have the privilege in getting both the Brazilian and Italian nationalities, and it is only natural for him to live in Italy if he is considered a citizen. He will come with us to Brazil whenever we come, but he will grow up in Italy. After all, he has an Italian name (he laughs)"


Q.After all the interviews which you have done, what was the question which wasn't asked to you and you want to answer ?

Ricky: "I have no idea, I have never thought of that. But it is only natural that if I want to say something and make it clear, I would add it in with another answer."


Q. Can you tell the people about the story of your accident, the one you suffered from in the beginning of your professional football life, the one which lead to your strong connection with religion ?

Ricky: "Of course, a lot of people tied this accident with my connection with religion, but there is no real connection there. I was nurtured in a biblical home, my parents follow the bible, and since my birth I have been going to church on a continuous basis. About the accident, it was in October 2000, I was a player for the Sao Paolo youth and I was given a holiday for the end of the week, and I went to visit my grandfather who lives in 'Caldas Novas' and I went to swim, when I jumped my head banged the in the pools floor and it started to bleed. My neck was in a lot of pain because of the 6th spinal cord's bone which we found out about later on. I left the pool and when my brother Digao saw my head bleeding, he took me to the hospital. And there my father arrived, the doctor performed x-rays on my head and didn't find anything, and so I left the hospital with the continuing pain in my neck, and we returned to Sao Paolo on Friday and the pain was so unbearable, so my dad took me to the hospital for some check ups. The doctor took some x-rays of my back and was going back and forth from his office to the bed I was lying in, to finally tell me: "In all honesty, do you feel like scratching your hands ?' I told him I felt it and all and that everything was perfectly fine, but I asked him to tell me what was wrong, and he said: "I can't tell you anything, before I talk to my superior doctors and consultants', later on he came to the room and said: 'you suffered from a very dangerous accident, you broke your neck and you are lucky that something else didn't happen, you were not paralyzed' all the doctors from then on told me how lucky I was, and from that day onwards I started to think that it was God who freed me from a dangerous problem. I had a cast on my neck for 3 months, and who covered my position in the team was Hiogo (spell), and from then on I was on the bench."


Q. A lot of people think that your brother earns Eur 1MM/year from Milan because the club can't pay you more than the salary cap. Are you ok with that ?

Ricky: "When I take a percentage from his salary (he laughs) of course this wont disturb me, to me its something normal. Also because my brother knows - and I know - that one day he will break out and represent himself and people will know him as 'Digao' and not 'Kaka's brother'. Last year when he played in Rimini, no one called him Kaka's little brother. This year when he came to Milan, he didn't play much but he gained a lot of experience. Maybe now he wants to move on, so he gets his chance to play more, and little by little he starts depending on himself. For the people, this wont be a problem. To be honest, it was never a problem that he was my brother. This doesn't bother him, and in return I am not worried about it."

post no.500

So. Don Silvio was interviewed by Brazilian paper O Globo at the G8 summit.

Here's what he said about Kaka: Kaká "não quer ir à Olimpíada porque ele está muito cansado".
[Kaka doesn't want to go to the Olympics because he's exhausted.]

Don Silvio also said that Ronaldinho was 'very expensive'.

link to article.

Congrats, mate. Here's hoping you continue your adventure here.

Kaka in tendonitis scare

Kaka has been ruled out of Milan’s Russian Railways Cup match with Chelsea due to suspected tendonitis.

The club released an official statement this evening confirming he would be undergoing a specialist training schedule over the next few days due to “a persistent inflammation of the left knee.”


This is causing concern because that was the knee that required surgery at the end of last season.

He pulled up during Friday’s 1-0 defeat to Sevilla, also in Moscow for the Russian Railways Cup, and was substituted.

There are reports swirling around the Brazilian media that this latest setback is much more serious than at first thought.

O Globo claim it is tendonitis and Kaka must rest for at least two weeks in order to fully recover. The Milan statement does not deny that is the case, although it tries to paint it in less dramatic terms.

It would be a disastrous blow for the Rossoneri, who already have a major striker shortage at the moment.

Marco Borriello is out for two months, Pippo Inzaghi is sidelined with muscular problems, while Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato are at the Olympics with Brazil.

This means the only fit striker at Carlo Ancelotti’s disposal is teenager Alberto Paloschi.

Milan face Chelsea in Moscow to decide third place in the Russian Railways Cup on Sunday at 11.00 UK time.

[AC Milan announces that the player Kaka will train separately due to the persistent swelling of his left knee.]

This is the same knee he had surgery on.

HAS he played a full 90 minutes this summer?

I think it's too early to really be able to tell what's going on. There's a lot of speculation right now but the only concrete thing out there is that his knee is swelling. We don't even know why.

It's the same knee that was operated on ... So I hope the doctors know what it is exactly, since they have a medical report on it.

But I am not comforted at all !! During the first half against Sevilla, he wasn't himself. He took several knocks at the start of the game ... And God only knows what happened when the cameras were not on him .. Inshallah he comes back