“Kaka was all set to join Chelsea” says Spanish press
Published:Before he suffered a serious knee injury in pre-season training, Real Madrid and Brazil’s superstar Kaka was fully expecting to be turning out for Chelsea this season.
According to the Spanish daily Sport, both Real Madrid and the player were in agreement, and a fee of €67million had been agreed for Kaka to rejoin Ancelotti at Chelsea, a manager for whom he had worked at AC Milan.
The report also claims that Real Madrid’s directors were furious that the player was in training when negotiations had reached such an advanced stage, especially as he was known to have experienced knee problems during the World Cup.
Specialists performed an operation on the player’s left knee on Thursday. “As soon as I saw him, I could tell it was serious,” said Dr Marc Martens, who operated on the player in Belgium. “His career has come under serious danger.”
Kaka is expected to be out for three to four months, although similar injuries to Madrid players Ruud van Nistelrooy and Mahamadou Diarra took six months to mend.
Madrid manager Jose Mourinho said yesterday that he would consider the season “a failure” if he failed to win either the Liga or the Champions League with Real Madrid.
Mourinho, who was reported to have been in complete agreement with the sale of Kaka, dealt with the issue in his signature style – with maximum condescension: “Kaka has hurt himself, but we’ll play someone else. We’re not just going to play with ten men.”
Real Madrid are second favourite at evens to win La Liga, behind Barcelona at 4/5. Madrid are also 4/1 second favourites behind Barcelona to win the Champions League.
