Really surprised to read La Gazzeta Dello Sport today and the particulars of a phone call between Leonardo and Jose Mourinho last week. It appears that the two speak often, but this call was different as it concerned a swap between the two clubs involving Maicon and Kaka.
Real Madrid wanted Maicon last season, while Inter are worried that Wesley Sneijder will move to the Premier League this summer, so on paper the deal makes sense.
According to the newspaper report:
This whole story began when José Mourinho asked his president for a full-back named Fabio Coentrao, class of 88 from Benfica and a Portuguese international. Benfica however wanted the princely sum of 35 million euro, and Perez wasn’t overpleased at that. So Mourinho started playing around with last year’s idea and with a bit more conviction this time: Sisenando Maicon, and he asked Leonardo about him. Leo told him about a great player whose performance this year had been up and down and that’s when the Idea with a capital “I” came: Leo replied asking for Ricardo Kakà in exchange. And, as Mourinho already has “El Kun” Aguero within his grasp, he can easily do without him.
While the idea of a swap makes sense there are several very big obstacles in the way. They are:
- Kakà is an ex-AC Milan player who still feels a lot of loyalty towards the Rossoneri. He does not seem like the kind of person who would go to his former clubs biggest rivals
- Kakà has stated several times that he doesn’t intend to leave Real until he has proved himself there. His two seasons in Madrid have been a disaster and I don’t know if he wants to leave yet.
- Kakà earns 10 million euro a year in Madrid, a salary that would blow apart Inter’s wage structure
- Last and not least, two summers ago Kakà cost Real Madrid €67 million. Last summer Maicon was available at €30 million. So in order to make this deal work, Inter would have to include about €37 million plus Maicon. That is a lot of money. Now if Inter gets €30 million for Sneijder, then the financial difference between the two playerrs looks more feasible.
If you are a Real Madrid fan what do you think of this potential deal? Is it time to sell Kaka our should he be given another season in Madrid to show what he can really do? Is a right-back really a place that Real Madrid really needs to strengthen?
