Player Profile

When he signed for Real Madrid last summer, Kaka’s reign as the world’s most expensive player lasted less than a month before Cristiano Ronaldo arrived at the Bernabeu and took his crown.

A year on and Ronaldo is still overshadowing his team-mate at Madrid as Kaka has endured a topsy-turvy season. Fans have got on his back following a run of below-par performances that have not been helped by a series of niggly injuries.

He arrived at the Spanish capital having enjoyed a spectacular six years at AC Milan, scoring 95 goals in 270 games and winning the Serie A title and the Champions League title.

His finest year came in 2007 where he won the Ballon d’Or, the Fifa World Player trophy and the man-of-the-match award in the Fifa Club World Cup final.

He moved to Milan for £6m in 2003 after scoring 23 goals in 58 league games for Sao Paolo.

He already has a World Cup medal to his name, but played just 18 minutes at the 2002 finals as a 18-year-old.

He opted to skip the 2007 Copa America having played three years of non-stop football, but returned fresh to international tournaments at the 2009 Confederations Cup and won the Golden Ball as the competition’s best player.

His first name is Ricardo, but got the nickname Kaka as his younger brother pronounced his name like that. He is deeply religious and donates some of his salary to the church in Sao Paulo where he married his childhood sweetheart, Caroline.

He recently had to shut her Twitter profile down after she reportedly used it to criticise his then Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini. When he was aged 18, he fractured a vertebra after hitting his head on the bottom of a swimming pool. He was worried that he could end up paralysed, but it healed within two months and he believes Jesus helped him recover.