Can Kaká really take debutants Orlando City to the MLS playoffs?

The former Ballon d’Or winner is adamant he can lead his new team to success. But it’s arguable whether he has the supporting cast to succeed




Kaká has been praised by his Orlando team-mates for his work ethic. Photograph: Nigel Worrall/Nigel Worrall/Demotix/Corbis

Lake Sylvan Park is more than 4,350 miles from Madrid and Milan in geographical terms and several light years in terms of soccer culture. Yet here in rural Seminole County, surrounded by horse-racing stables hoping to produce the next Derby champion or Preakness winner, Brazil’s former World Player of the Year (he beat some kid called Lionel Messi to the award in 2007) is looking to lead his own group of potential thoroughbreds.

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, better known to most of the soccer world as Kaká, has left the likes of Real Madrid and Milan behind and is now a Lion, plying his trade for Orlando City as they take their first steps at MLS level this year. It is the kind of challenge not even David Beckham tackled on his famous foray across the pond, as he headed to Los Angeles and US soccer’s equivalent of the New York Yankees.

No, Kaká’s journey is profoundly different, albeit starting at the same age, 32, as Beckham was when he joined the Galaxy. While the England midfielder was arriving with a well-established team and a mission to raise the league’s profile, the Brazilian carries arguably an even bigger weight of expectation, not just from Orlando fans but the city’s tourism and business leaders, as well as the league itself. This is a completely unproven team, thrown together in piecemeal fashion from their USL Pro squad, an expansion draft, free agency and the MLS SuperDraft. Oh, and the Designated Player rule that has brought Kaká to Central Florida.

For Beckham, there was the Hollywood Bowl, Letterman and the paparazzi; for Kaká there is the Citrus Bowl, parochial News 13 TV and the fans. Lots of fans. Almost 7,000 turned out for an open practice night last Saturday at the team’s temporary home of the Citrus Bowl – usually the preserve of football and Monster Jam – and there is no doubt the club is looking to Kaká as an ambassador as well as an onfield general, quarterback and all-round symbol.

Kaká has fuelled those hopes himself, of course, insisting in his first major interview last month that he saw no reason why Orlando shouldn’t win the championship this season. Considering only two expansion teams have even reached the playoffs in their inaugural campaign, it is ramping up the anticipation levels to a legendary 11. Yet from the club president Phil Rawlins on down, the mantra is most certainly one of “playoffs or bust”, and the players are already in no doubt of where the bar has been set right from the outset.

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The fans, too, have caught playoff fever – they hope to fill the Citrus Bowl’s 68,000 seats for the season opener against New York City on 8 March – along with the expectation of being as successful in MLS as they were in US Pro, where they won either the regular season or the championship in each of their four years at minor league level.

Watch training around Sylvan Lake’s manicured acres – and the facilities here are genuinely top notch – and there is a subtle shift, a notable deferment when the ball is at Kaká’s feet, be it for a possession drill or all-out attacking formations. The other players are almost in awe of the Brazilian and you can detect their obvious appreciation in simply running alongside him and trading passes with the feet that won the Ballon d’Or.

At the same time, the player himself is conspicuously at ease. Still lean and graceful, Kaká is powerful yet almost balletic, a genuine master of his craft. This is why Orlando have shelled out the big bucks to bring him here – his easy-going and fan-friendly public persona are major bonuses but are, ultimately, purely side issues – and this is where they are hoping for the biggest pay-off. Because this season genuinely is about being competitive from the get-go, pushing the playing envelope and making it to the playoffs.

Rawlins has already seen the Kaká Factor at work at first hand. He told me: “On his very first day here, he was the first in at 8.30am and the first thing he did was go in the gym and get a workout in before training, to show the other players what it takes to be world-class without having to say anything. That’s the kind of leadership he brings, just providing the right example for our young players. Even though he has won everything there is to win in this game, he still knows you have to do it every day, from start to finish, to maintain that level.

“We have also assembled a quality squad around him and I think his attitude will be contagious, so I will be excited to see this team play and take New York apart on 8 March. We are not novices at this, we are not naïve. If we get things right and the players gel, the playoffs are certainly an attainable goal.”

For all Rawlins’ assertions, much of the quality in Orlando’s squad is still unproven, from Trinidadian midfielder Kevin Molino – the record scorer in USL Pro last year – to Honduran striker Bryan Rochez, the youngest Designated Player in the league at 19, who scored an average of a goal every other game in the Primera Division in his home country.


Kaká, centre, is unveiled by Orlando City. A star player was key to the strategy of club president Phil Rawlins, second from left. Photograph: Nigel Worrall/Demotix/Corbis

Their talents are possibly lightweight, representing a fast-moving will-o-the-wisp attacking force that could get blown away by a more pragmatic, physical defensive front, especially that employed by the likes of DC United and Los Angeles.

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Once again, however, the answer is “Watch Kaká.” I spoke to City’s two British stalwarts, experienced midfielder Lewis Neal, who is back for his second spell at the club after two seasons with DC United, and defender Luke Boden, who has been a mainstay in the back four for the past four seasons. Both have been around long enough to recognise special when they see it.

Boden said: “He is a fantastic player and he is a great guy to be around. He is always laughing and smiling; you can’t help but be impressed. But what people don’t see is when he is the gym first thing every morning – we see how hard he is working and how that then transfers on to the field. Most importantly, the game just seems to slow down when he has the ball and it all comes naturally to him. You can see it.”

Neal is equally adamant that the Kaká Effect is real. He added: “His resume speaks for itself; you can see what he has achieved in his career. And, in the short space of time he has been here, you can really see what a talent he is, and it is not just the on-field stuff. He is just as professional off the field as well, and you can see that rubbing off on the younger players. It is his mannerisms and work ethic, and it can only mean good things for us as an organisation and as players. It is an absolute pleasure to have that experience every day.”

You would expect his team-mates to be effusive about their opportunity, but MLS Commissioner Don Garber is just as smitten by the Brazilian’s X-factor.

“There is definitely something special about this guy and, don’t forget, I have seen the effect the likes of David Beckham and Thierry Henry have already had,” Garber told the Guardian. “I think it’s hard to actually overestimate what he can do for Orlando. When you remember he is one of only three people, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, to have won the World Player of the Year award in the past eight years, it is an impressive message to be sending.

“Kaká also still has a lot of play left in him – very much like David when he first came here – and he opens the league up to new markets in South America on a scale we haven’t had before.”

So, how much more does Kaká have left in the tank after fully 14 seasons with Sao Paulo, Milan – in two stints – and Madrid? At 32, you suspect it could well be more than the likes of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, the big-name DPs who will (hopefully) arrive this year at LA Galaxy and New York City.

The player himself is unequivocal. “Three more years,” he says, with barely a pause for consideration. “Maybe four. For me I think it’s an exchange in values. I can give something for the league, and for sure the league will give a lot of things to me. I will give all my experience, my name and everything I have already won in soccer, and I will learn a lot from the league as it’s growing more than any other league in the world.

“A lot of my team-mates at Milan said ‘Please take me with you. I would like to play in America.’ I still get a lot of messages that some players want to join me here. Players in Europe are looking at MLS in a special way now.”

And that way is younger, sooner and with more to gain – both on the field and off it. Kaká is coming to MLS, and he is bringing an eager young team with him. They might also just keep him young enough to stick at this for more than another four years if all goes to plan, and an Orlando title in the near future may not be a pipedream after all.