Kaka – My Trails and Tribulations

Someone who is almost always a good bet is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite.
Kaka, as he is popularly known as, was born on the 22nd of April 1982. Kaka, whose full and real name is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, currently plays his football for the Spanish giants Real Madrid and he is also one of the star midfielders on the Brazilian National Team.

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite was born to Brazilian parents, his father being Bosco Izecson Pereira Leite who was a very hard working civil engineer and his mother Simone Cristina Santos Leite. Unlike most soccer stars and most Brazilian football players, Kaka had a very good and solid family upbringing. His family was financially secure and this gave him the opportunity to focus both on school and of course his favourite past time football. Kaka has a younger brother by the name of Rodrigo/Digão and a cousin by the name of Eduardo Delani who are both also footballers with professional game.

When Kaka turned seven, the Leite family moved to the city São Paulo. While he was schooling at São Paulo School had began to play for “Alphaville” which was a local youth club, Alphaville went on to qualify and play in the final in a local tournament. It was in this final and tournament that he got discovered by the local town club São Paulo FC where he got his first professional break through.

Unfortunately for Kaka at the age of 18, Kaká was injured in a freak swimming pool accident that nearly put an end to his budding football career. The swimming pool injury was nearly a career-ending and possibly a paralysis-inflicting spinal injury. Thankfully and amazingly Kaka fully recovered from this horrific accident and he attributes this full body recovery to God Almighty and has even gone a step further and tithed his income to his church.

Kaka’s amazing and exciting football career began at the tender age of eight. This is when he began playing for a local club. Right about the same time, he also began playing tennis, Kaka who was fifteen at the time signed his first professional contract with to São Paulo FC and it was after that moment he decided to take football seriously. Kaka joined footballing giants A.C. Milan for a fee of €8.5 million. While playing at Milan, Kaká won numerous awards and accolade including the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year 2007. Kaká is known to be a very talented and skillful player but he also has a very generous and gentle side to him. That is why in the year 2004 he was named ambassador of United Nations’ World Food Programme.By being appointed in 2004, Kaka became the youngest ambassador of the United Nations’ World Food Programme.

Kaka left A.C. Milan in June 2009 and signed with Real Madrid where he has continued to shine and play well. The nick name Kaka was given to him by his younger brother, the nickname is short for “Ricardo” in Brazil. Kaka’s younger brother Rodrigo gave him the name “caca” since he could not pronounce “Ricardo” at the time and the name stuck and it eventually evolved into Kaka. when they were young; it eventually evolved into Kaká.