Kaka ready to make major history at Real Madrid

RECIFE/MADRID - Brazilian superstar Kaka expressed late Monday his satisfaction at having joined Real Madrid and noted that he feels motivated to “make major history” with the Spanish giants.

“I am very motivated to be a part of this new Real Madrid team which is going to seek to be a champion, both in Europe and in Spain,” the attacking midfielder told a press conference in the north-eastern Brazilian city of Recife.

A couple of hours earlier, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez had confirmed the signing after reaching an agreement with the player’s current club Milan.

“The transfer has been signed,” Perez told Spanish radio station Onda Cero. “We can say that Kaka is a Real Madrid player. He is a player that many clubs wanted, but the good relationship with Milan has been very important to close the deal.”

The Spanish giants’ official website gave further details of the long-anticipated signing.

“The Brazilian footballer satisfactorily passed a full medical checkup. Kaka has signed a contract linking him to Real Madrid for the next six seasons,” the club said in a brief statement.

Although no financial details were made public, Spanish media reports had spoken of a deal worth about 65 million euros (about $90.4 million). Kaka himself would reportedly earn 9 million euros per year after tax.

With a broad smile and a modest tone, he said that he would not like to wear Real Madrid’s number 5 jersey, previously worn by Zinedine Zidane.

“I am grateful for the suggestion, but Zidane is Zidane,” he said.

“I want no comparisons with him. I am just arriving, and I will also try to make major history, with titles. But Zidane’s history has already been written and he is a model for me.”

Kaka said he does not yet know what number he will wear on his back, and promised to “choose calmly.”

He admitted that the transfer to Real Madrid is more challenging than his previous move, from Brazilian club Sao Paulo to Milan.

“When I went off to Milan nobody knew who Kaka was or what could become of him,” he explained. “Now I am regarded as one of the best in the world.”

“It is a different responsibility, but I am not scared of it. It is a new motivation for me. At 27, I have won everything I could have won. And now I arrive at a place where I haven’t won anything yet, and that is a great motivation for me.”

Milan’s web site Monday night thanked “the man Kaka and the great champion Kaka for his crucial contribution to the many victories achieved in the six years with the red-blacks.

“The technical loss, albeit serious, can be filled. But it will be very difficult to fill the void left by Kaka as a man, a shining example of seriousness, involvement and professionalism.”

The site listed game by game the 70 goals scored by the Brazilian in the Serie A and the 23 goals in the Champions League he helped win in 2007, when he received the FIFA World Player award. He also scored one goal in the European Supercup and one at the Club World Cup.

Kaka stressed that he cannot complain at all about his stay at Milan and that he understands the Italian club’s need to trade him off to tackle some of its financial problems.

The player underwent the relevant medical tests early Monday in Recife, where he is set to play Paraguay with the Brazil national team Wednesday. There, he signed his contract with two representatives of Real Madrid.

Kaka thus became the first signing under Perez’s new stint as Real Madrid president, the first of the new “galacticos.” And he looked unlikely to be the last, since Perez has promised a “spectacular project” with the world’s best players.

The signing’s symbolic charge went beyond that, however, since Perez’s predecessor Ramon Calderon conspicuously failed to get the Brazilian to play at Real Madrid in almost three years as club president.

The Spanish club leadership value Kaka as a serious, very professional player, distant from the prima donna ways of other football superstars but one who still has great commercial value.