How the Kaká deal fell apart

As the Football world quickly moves away from the events leading up to Kaká staying at AC Milan and not moving as most believed to Manchester City, a number of interesting twists in the tale have come to light.

From the start of this deal to its very end it involved not only the respective clubs and player but the powerful forces of Adidas, Nike as well as Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN TV network stated intent of purchasing the rights to English Premier League matches live. From the broadcasting vantage in many ways the potential move of Kaká to Manchester City represented a near perfect situation for Disney’s expansion into Football and the Citizens global branding with one of the sports best examples on and off the pitch. A great athlete not only known for his on-pitch splendor but of irrefutable character and quite possibly the perfect figurehead for the sports emergence within the American market. However not to be outdone, the targeting of Kaká, one of the most recognizable names in the Adidas stable, would result in the German based company fighting off any his move from the club with whatever they could muster.

While in the shadows of this entire deal, with City headed up by ex-Nike man Gary Cook as chief executive it is not by chance that their attempts were directed towards one of their rivals most well-known athletes in a cutting piece of corporate warring. Along with his Nike’s £285 acquisition of Umbro and sponsorship involvement of England’s national academy, this was a point in the massive financial battle of worlds Football market as City moves slowly affiliates itself with Nike.

However what remains to be seen is the “how and why” Man City executives were “played” in this situation. While in the past the executive team of the Citizens have made a series of negotiation blunders, this time they were letter perfect and came with a brilliant plan. Knowing full well that Mr. Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite aka Kaká is a man of the highest moral character and it would take more than just a sizable contract to lure him to Manchester, they were ready to table a proposition that would fulfill some of his personal goals, building a charitable foundation of extraordinary proportion. If true be told, City’s management which has stumbled on many occasions, outdid itself in a not only a brilliant tactical move but one to bring it to the forefront of sports management. However these plans went astray quickly and after acknowledging Kaká represents the values as the ambassador of the sport that Man City wishes to project, Mr. Cook noted that they were never able to meet with him and all “his representatives wanted to talk about how much we were going to pay him.”

After vetting AC Milan’s interest in negotiating a deal and being assured “Milan made it quite clear Kaka was for sale”, as Mr Cook told the BBC, he along with a board member from Abu Dhabi and one other senior executive flew to Milan to finalize the deal. However the intent of Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and owner of AC Milan changed as per Mr. Cook:

“We were confined to a room, with no food or drink, and we asked some questions of the football club and more importantly we asked some questions of the representatives of the player and they simple could not answer the questions.”

So what happened to the deal?

Well possibly the greatest hint of things to come in a highly intertwined deal is the breadcrumbs left by Kaká’s teammate David Beckham, as less than forty-eight hours of the deal collapsing when he informed Spanish media source “AS” that the he is likely to move to Real Madrid, where he can continue wearing the three stripes this summer.

So has the price of a deal already orchestrated been raised?

more to follow on what was once a game