Last time we met, the transfer window just opened and we discussed a move to Man City for Gigi Buffon. Turns out Buffon isn’t good enough for Man Citeh though- or maybe he’s just too damn cheap. I mean, just look at what they use as toilet paper over in the Eastlands. They’re after Kaka now, and I’m sure you guys are as tired of hearing about this as I am. I’d just like to take a more Italia-oriented viewpoint at this.
On one hand, it could be very positive. Selling Kaka would mean that Milan loses a superstar- and undoubtedly one of the best players on this Earth when on form- but with 120 MILLION DOLLARS Milan could buy a brand new team. Or at least defenders/replacements for thier aging guys, which is mostly everyone on the team. The only problem is that Milan haven’t exactly been stellar at transfers in the past few years. They’ve brought back an aging and crappy Sheva and Ronaldinho, who is quite good but may be one of the reasons why Kaka wants to leave in the first place. Then again, they did bring in Pato, one of the most exciting and skilled young strikers out there. So losing one superstar could mean Milan would buy three or four more. Of course, this is risky because they might not do that. They could buy crappier players or even no one at all. But the tradeoff here could be worth it.
But on the other hand, this could be a huge loss for calcio and Serie A in general. Losing Kaka means losing one of the big superstars of the peninsula, and unless Milan bring in another one, Italy’s image will take a hit. It’s a delicate situation with no real answer. But so far, Kaka seems to want to stay. And the final word will be his. Let’s not forget that Kaka is not a mercenary- anything but. The man who so often has “I belong to Jesus” written on his undershirt is unlikely to be in this for the money. Would a true soccer superstar even want to leave a club like Milan and Champions League football next year for one mired in the relegation zone?
Even more disturbing is that this could leave calcio with a huge void. There’s a common notion that the three best players in the world currently are Messi, Ronaldo, and Kaka (And no I don’t really care if you agree with me on this. They’re the biggest superstars and on form are probably the best 3). If Kaka leaves, that means Serie A loses a very important reference point. Furthermore, it raises a ton of other questions, like club loyalty and the issue of a salary cap. This one transfer could open up a can of worms.
The Kaka saga aside, Serie A as a whole is in some exciting times. Juve and Inter are really close at the top of the table, and the bottom half of the table has some surprises of it’s own, like Samp and Udinese. Of course as a Roma fan I’ve been loving the recent resurgence and will be watching the rest of the games very nervously to see that we finish in the fourth spot. Don’t even want to imagine what will happen if we don’t.
Moving onto other topics, all has been relatively quiet on the Azzurri front. We still have that friendly against Brazil next month, and I’ll have a preview up soon. But there’s really been no huge news from Lippi or anyone else. Other than that he wouldn’t mind gay players on the team, and that’s hardly earthshaking stuff. Amauri is still a jackass and hasn’t picked a team and Buffon has finally returned from injury, but all in all it’s been a quiet time for Italy.
I was browsing theoffside.com as I often do, and I found a link to this excellent, excellent article. It’s very similar to something I was going to do, but this is written far better than I ever could’ve written it. I highly recommend that anyone even remotely interested in calcio- or soccer in general- give this a read.
