Berlusconi manipulates win-win Kaka football saga

As the world record Kaka transfer saga came to an abrupt end late on Monday with club and player claiming the Brazilian would stay in Italy, there was a palpable feeling that this had all played nicely into Silvio Berlusconi’s hands.

The AC Milan president is a media mogul and his country’s second-longest serving Prime Minister having held the position on four separate occasions.

He is a controversial figure who has an extensive record of criminal allegations being levied against him, so much so that last year he joked at a G8 summit: “I’m the universal record-holder for the number of trials in the entire history of man – and also of other creatures who live on other planets.”

What has always been abundantly clear is his skill and cunning as a politician and he seems to have demonstrated his full repertoire in the Kaka transfer saga.

On Monday night, Berlusconi positioned himself as Milan’s hero, the man who saved the club from the evil jaws of mega-rich Manchester City, who were trying to snatch Milan’s prized asset.

“Both I and he (Kaka) have intervened,” said Berlusconi in an interview with TV station ‘7 Gold’.

“When I heard him say that he prefers to stay, that he doesn’t feel like he has lost the opportunity to earn a higher salary and that he feels privileged to wear the shirt, he values the closeness and the friendships, the heat and affection that all the fans have shown him even in these last two days, I said ‘hallelujah’ and we hugged.”

Since then Kaka described Berlusconi as an “incredible” man while Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani was also keen to present his superior as the hero of the hour.

“Once more the fans should thank president Berlusconi for his economic strength,” he said.

The whole affair has left a bitter taste in City’s mouth with their executive chairman Garry Cook believing they had been played by Milan.

“If you want my personal opinion they bottled it. He clearly was for sale but we never got to meet with the player, the behaviour of AC Milan got in the way,” he told the BBC.

“We met with the football club and they made it quite clear that Kaka was for sale and we made it quite clear that we wanted to bring him to Manchester City Football Club.”

With the level of funds reportedly on the table – a 100 million euros fee for Milan and 15 million euros a season for Kaka – Milan were clearly tempted to sell.

The proof of that was the comments coming out of the club. Unlike the past when Berlusconi had claimed he would never sell Kaka, this time he said he could not stand in the player’s way if he wanted to leave.

That essentially absolved Milan of responsibility if Kaka did leave, meaning that it would have been the player’s choice.

Milan went to great lengths to demonstrate that they could not match City’s salary offer while also never actually accepting the bid.

What then emerged was that Kaka never wanted to leave Milan, and certainly not for a team struggling in the bottom half of their league and without Champions League football to look forward to either this season or next.

Kaka, possibly feeling pushed into a departure by his club, certainly considered City’s offer, but with the passionate fans response pleading with him to stay it seems that both club and player felt it would be a big PR own goal to let him go.

So Berlusconi, who undoubtedly would have splashed the Kaka cash on some big name signings while trumpeting his role in strengthening the team, instead announced his rejection of the colossal bid, taking the moral high ground and humorously for a multi-millionaire, claiming that there were things in life more important than money.

Had Kaka gone, Berlusconi would have won financially, now that he’s stayed, the club president’s popularity is set to soar instead.