One year after his £50 million move it is fair to say Fernando Torres’ move has not been a success. But there is one man whose more expensive move has been even more of a disaster…
He is a former World Player of the Year whose star has waned so much it barely registers.
Kaka is now aged 29 and it is right to say his move to Real Madrid has been entirely unsuccessful.
It was in the summer of 2009 that Kaka signed for Madrid, as part of their second Galacticos project, costing £56 million.
The move has been a failure on many levels.
Since arriving at Madrid Kaka has failed to win La Liga and has been unable to influence games in the style he once did at AC Milan.
At Milan Kaka was superb, spending several seasons there after signing for £8.5 million in 2003.
Fans of Manchester United will recall how he cut their defence to ribbons at Old Trafford and at the San Siro in the 2007 Champions League semi-final.
But at Madrid, he has not found himself and has been unable to stamp his own identity on the team.
When he first arrived he started fairly promisingly, but as Madrid were swept aside by Barcelona his form waned badly.
Then there was World Cup 2010, where he continued his poor form and hampered Brazil’s progress in the tournament, also being wrongly sent off for an innocuous off-the-ball incident.
Two months later he underwent surgery on a groin injury which kept him out most of last season.
This season he has again spent time on the sidelines, and against Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey last month he was completely ineffective.
Although he is 29, he potentially has several years of football left in him at the top level.
His record at Madrid overall is played 78 and scored 25, which is not bad for an attacking midfielder, but the problem is that for £56 million, fans at the Bernabeu are entitled to expect that little bit extra, game changing moments against their deadly rivals Barcelona, which so far he has not been able to produce.
He should not be written off completely, it would be jumping the gun to do so, but we feel we are within our rights to label him, at present; ‘The most expensive flop ever’.
– Do you disagree with our assessment of Kaka’s time at Madrid?
image: © Jan Solo
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