Saturday, January 17, 2009

Silvio Berlusconi hints of Kaká’s departure

As per the FIFA web-site, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and owner of AC Milan hinted of the imminent move of Kaká to Manchester City:

“Nothing is decided yet but it is very difficult to ask someone to stay and respect his contract when he has been offered such a huge amount of money.

“You have to act in a moral way, like a big brother, as I did with Sheva (Andrei Shevchenko). I didn’t know how to say no to him when the offer came in from Chelsea.

“We can’t possibly increase the salaries for everyone as we would have to do to keep hold of Kaka,” he said.

“I’ve already said it and (vice-president) Adriano Galliani believes it too but my reasoning is clear: you can’t say no to a lad who has a short career and who has the potential to earn much more than he is currently being paid. On the other hand we can’t raise his salary because it’s already very high and we would have to raise the salary of all the other players as well”, although he equally added “I hope he stays.”