KAKÁ

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite or Ricardo Kaká, is a Brazilian football attacking midfielder who currently plays for Italian Serie A club Milan and the Brazilian national team. Kaká started his footballing career at the age of eight, when he began playing for a local club. At the time, he also played tennis, and it was not until he moved on to São Paulo FC and signed his first professional contract with the club at the age of 15 that he chose to focus on football.

In 2003 he joined Milan for a fee of €8.5 million. While at Milan, Kaká won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 2007. After his success with Milan, Kaká joined Real Madrid for a transfer fee of €65 million. At the time, this was the second highest transfer fee (in euros) ever, behind only the €75 million fee for Zinedine Zidane. After four seasons in Spain, he returned to Milan in 2013. He has been a Brazilian international player since 2002, and was selected for their victorious World Cup squad that year, as well as two more editions of the tournament.

In addition to his contributions on the pitch, Kaká is known for his humanitarian work. In 2004, by the time of his appointment, he became the youngest ambassador of the UN World Food Programme. Kaká was the first sportsperson to amass 10 million followers on Twitter.

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite was born in Gama, in Brazil, to Bosco Izecson Pereira Leite (a civil engineer) and Simone dos Santos (an elementary school teacher). He had a financially secure upbringing that allowed him to focus on both school and football at the same time. His younger brother Rodrigo (best known as Digão) and cousin Eduardo Delani are also professional footballers.

When he was seven, Kaká's family moved to São Paulo. His school had arranged him in a local youth club called "Alphaville," who qualified to the final in a local tournament. There he was discovered by hometown club São Paulo FC, who offered an assignment.

At the age of 18, Kaká suffered a career-threatening and possibly paralysis-inducing spinal fracture as a result of a swimming pool accident,^[17][18] but remarkably made a full recovery. He attributes his recovery to God and has since tithed his income to his church.

Kaká has been described as a quick, composed, balanced, highly skilful and creative team player. He possesses excellent ball control, awareness and positioning, and is capable of beating defenders in one on one situations as well as creating space for team mates. He possesses a great shot from any distance, superb vision and fantastic passing and dribbling ability. Having performed predominantly as a playmaking attacking midfielder throughout his career, as well as other attacking positions, he is known for being capable of both scoring, creating and assisting goals, and is also an accurate penalty-kick taker.

Kaká married his childhood sweetheart Caroline Celico on 23 December 2005 at a Rebirth in Christ church in São Paulo. The couple have two children: son Luca Celico Leite (born 10 June 2008) and daughter Isabella (born 23 April 2011).

Kaká was sworn in as an Italian citizen on 12 February 2007. He features prominently in Adidas advertising and also has a modeling contract with Armani, the latter preventing him from appearing in a photo collection alongside his Milan teammates that was published by Dolce & Gabbana in early 2007. He appeared on the cover of some regional editions of the EA Sports video game FIFA 11.

Kaká cites Raí, the former Brazilian and São Paulo FC captain, as his footballing role model.^[94][95]

He is best friends with Marcelo Saragosa, who plays as a midfielder for the team D.C. United in the United States. They each served as the best man at the other's wedding. He is also close friends with Radamel Falcao.

Kaká is a devout evangelical Christian who was an active member of the São Paulo-based Rebirth in Christ Church. He became engrossed in religion at the age of 12: "I learnt that it is faith that decides whether something will happen or not." He removed his jersey to reveal an "I Belong to Jesus" t-shirt and openly engaged in prayer moments after the final whistle of Brazil's 2002 World Cup, and Milan's 2004 Scudetto and 2007 Champions League triumphs. He also had the same phrase, along with "God Is Faithful," stitched onto the tongues of his boots. During the postmatch celebration following Brazil's 4–1 win over Argentina in the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup final, he and several of his teammates wore t-shirts that read "Jesus Loves You" in various languages. While receiving the FIFA World Footballer of the year in 2007 he said when he was young he just wanted to be a professional player for São Paulo and play one game for the Brazil national team but that "God gave [him] more than he ever asked for".Though sharing a common goal, Kaká is not currently a formal member of the organization Atletas de Cristo ("Athletes of Christ"). In goal celebrations he usually points to the sky as a gesture of thanks to God. Kaká's favourite music is gospel, and his favourite book is the Bible. Since November 2004, he has served as an Ambassador Against Hunger for the UN's World Food Programme, the youngest to do so at the time of his appointment.

His nickname Kaká is a common hypocorism for Ricardo in Brazil. In Kaká's case, it was created by his younger brother Digão's inability to pronounce "Ricardo" when they were young.