An extremely lucrative transfer to Manchester City was turned down by Kaka in 2009 in favour of remaining with AC Milan, the playmaker has revealed.
After the successful takeover at the Citizens by Sheikh Mansour, they wanted to make the Ballon d’Or winner their marquee signing but a concern over the building of the City squad resulted in him taking the ‘safer’ option to stay put.
But the deal was so far down the line, Kaka has acknowledged, that it came down to whether or not he would give the green light to the switch.
“The only thing that was stopping the deal was me giving my final word,” he told FourFourTwo. “All of the numbers and small details had been discussed and the wages I would have earned were much, much higher than I was on at Milan.
“I even found myself imagining life in England, what my new routine at City would be, how my wife and kids would settle and all of those thoughts were swirling around in my head.
“Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the right time for me to go there and the main reason was my uncertainty about the squad-building process because I wasn’t sure how it would be reshaped and I wasn’t convinced.
“I was at one of the most historic and successful teams in Europe and was asked to swap that for a team who were just starting their project, where I would be the first big player so I thought it would be safer to stay at Milan.”
The Brazilian didn’t stay at the Rossoneri for much longer though and that summer he joined Real Madrid in a €67 million move.
