Ricardo Lzecson Dos Santos Leite

“Rickey Kaka”

Ricardo Lzecson Dos Santos Leite, famously known as Kaka is a very well-known professional Brazilian Soccer player. He was born in Brasilia, Brazil on April 22, 1982. He comes from an established family and is a son of Simone Cristina dos Santos Leite, an elementary level teacher and Bosco Izecson Pereira Leite, a civil engineer. Ricardo’s nickname, Kaka came into existence because of his younger brother named Rodrigo. He called him ‘Caca’ when he was small, as he could not pronounce Ricardo’s original name. Personally, Kaka’s favorite book is Bible and he likes gospel music.  Kaka started his career in Sao Paulo where his family moved when he was seven years old. His younger brother Rodrigo, also known as, Digao came into same field as his brother. His cousin, Eduardo Delani is also very well-known soccer player. (Topendsports, n.d.)

Kaka liked playing Soccer from the very beginning and continued his studies as well. When Kaka was living in Sao Paulo with his parents, he practiced the game during his free time. His passion made him enter The Sao Paulo Football Club, which was his first professional club at the age of 8 years. He impressed the youth club with his skills and signed a contract when he was 15 years old. He was hired by the club to lead the entire soccer team. However, three years later, when he was 18 years old, Kaka faced a serious accident while swimming that fractured his spinal cord. This incident was a big threat to his life and brought his football career on hold. However, he recovered this injury soon with complete submission to god and since then he has strong bond with religion. He also made sure that a fixed portion of his income is given to the church regularly. After one year of his injury, he again started playing games as a member of San Paulo’s senior team. This game was taken by Kaka where he made them win the game during the last few minutes of the match. In 2001, Kaka as an attacking midfield player made his team gain the Torneio Rio Sao Paulo title. He also played twenty-seven matches as attacking midfield player within the same year and made total twelve goals. His excellent performance made him start getting attention from many big players of the market who wanted to hire Kaka as member. Later in the year 2002, Kaka became part of the Brazilian National team and made them win the FIFA world cup 2002. In 2003, Sao Paulo club handed Kaka over to the AC Milan, Italy. They took the overall cost of ten Million Dollars, i.e. 8, 5 Million Euros for talented Kaka. The amount Ac Milan paid was said to be ‘Peanuts’ by the president of Ac Milan and Italy, Silvio Berlusconi for the talent they were getting. This step for joining Milan made him learn more and develop his abilities as an all-rounder. He also became successful because of his talent and best play. He touch the heights of popularity and got titles like The Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year in 2004 as well as in 2006 also. In his personal life, Kaka was a popular playboy and had many affairs but in the end, he got married to Caroline Celico, who he knew from childhood. He married her on 23 December 2005 at a cataholic church in Sao Paulo, Barzil. He also got the title of Best Midfielder of the Champions League within the same year. In the year 2007, when Milan won the match against Liverpool in Athens, Kaka was awarded as a top scorer and also got the title of Best FIFA player of the year. This year is said to be one of the best moments of his life. He has also made his team get the club world’s titles. In year 2009, due to high debts on the Milan club, they handed over Kaka who was their best player on a 6-year contract to the Real Mardid Club of Spain for Seventy Eight Million Dollars. (Bio, 2014). He has maintained a very strong relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo, who was a member of Manchester United but joined Real Madrid team as well in the same year, 2009. Kaka did not score much in the world cup of 2010 because Brazil surrendered Holland during the quarterfinals (Coggin, n.d.). However, both, Kaka and Ronaldo are good players of the team but Kaka has faced many injuries in past years, which does not allow him to show his skills on ground. They are considered to be best friends and have a close relationship on grounds and off grounds as well. (ronaldo7, n.d.)

Other than his football career, Kaka is a very religious person and ever since he recovered from the worse injury, he has very strong faith in god, which makes him practices religion strictly. He is not only a good player but is also greatly involved in various social activities where he contributes as much as he can to help various causes (Jones, 2010).  He likes to spend time with his family and admires them a lot. In addition, Kaka runs many brand campaigns. He is in an agreement for modeling with Armani and is a part of Adidas advertisement campaigns as well. In 2004, Kaka became the youngest ambassador at UN world food Programme (RICARDO KAKA, n.d.). In 2005, he assisted an organization for supporting social cause to raise food for children’s belonging to the developing country. 

Kaka currently is still playing for the Real Mardid Club and is happily living with his wife in Spain, Madrid. According to him, he has never been interested in cars and girls; he enjoys a happy family life who determines him (Bio, 2014). Currently, he is blessed with a baby boy named Luca Celico Leite, who was born in June 2008 and a daughter, named Isabelle who was born on 14 of April 2011 (ronaldo7, n.d.)

Bibliography

Bio. (2014). Kaka Biography - Soccor Player. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/kaka-559558#synopsis

Coggin, S. (n.d.). Kaka, The Brazilian is the perfect pro. Retrieved from http://worldsoccer.about.com/od/players/a/Kaka.htm

Jones, J. V. (2010, April 13). Toward the Goal: The Kaká Story (ZonderKidz Biography). Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Toward-Goal-Story-ZonderKidz-Biography/dp/0310720036

RICARDO KAKA. (n.d.). RICARDO KAKA BIOGRAPHY. Retrieved from http://kaka-miracle.blogspot.com/2008/01/personal-information_13.html

ronaldo7. (n.d.). Ricardo Kaká-Kaká Biography. Retrieved from http://www.ronaldo7.net/friends/ricardo-kaka.html

Topendsports. (n.d.). Profile: Kaká (Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite). Retrieved from http://www.topendsports.com/sport/soccer/profiles/kaka.htm