Man City’s amazing Kaka offer catches attention after 115 charges found guilty
Back in January 2009, Manchester City made a move that shocked everyone with the huge amounts of money involved, showing early signs of the club’s big spending power that’s often talked about now. As the transfer window was closing, the wealthy club from Abu Dhabi made an eye-catching £100 million bid to sign the highly wanted Kaka from AC Milan.
Before trying to get Kaka, City had also tried and failed to sign stars like David Villa, Gianluigi Buffon, and Thierry Henry. Garry Cook, their executive chairman then, said that “ludicrous” demands stopped those deals from happening. But then City surprised everyone by offering an enormous amount for Kaka—the offer was about £50 million more than the world record fee Real Madrid paid for Zinedine Zidane. They also offered Kaka a huge weekly wage of £500,000, which today would be worth over £800,000 a week.
Kaka was tempted and got very close to moving to Manchester. In a 2017 interview, he shared how far the talks went. He said they had talked over all the details and the offer was ready—it was just up to him to decide. The wages were much higher than what he earned at Milan, and naturally, he pictured how life in England might be. He thought about how it would feel for his family to move and prayed a lot to find peace and make the right choice.
But Kaka had doubts because Manchester City was still a young project and not yet the big club it is today. Money wasn’t everything for him, and he was happy in Milan, where fans showed him lots of love. When news of his possible transfer caused Milan fans to protest outside the club and even his home, it meant a lot to Kaka. They wanted him to stay, and that support played a big role in his decision.
At a key moment, Kaka called his father and told him firmly that he wasn’t moving right now and that he planned to stay with Milan, at least for the time being. Later that summer, Kaka moved to Real Madrid for £56 million. Meanwhile, Manchester City went on to spend nearly £124 million on players like Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Joleon Lescott.
Between 2009 and early 2018, City spent around £1.2 billion on new players. This week though, the club was found guilty of inflating its commercial revenue by £830 million between 2009-10 and 2017-18. During that time, they made less than £400 million from selling players.
READ MORE: Pep Guardiola breaks silence with clear message to Man City after guilty verdict on 114 charges