Kaka's return lifts Brazil

Eleven months is a long time for a team to be without its talisman. It is long enough, too, for the sceptics to raise their concerns, even if those in question are the record five-time FIFA World Cup™ winners and the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year.

But this doubt pales in comparison to the pyrrhonism that once clouded Kaka's future in football. The Brazilian was 18 and on the books at Sao Paulo when, in 2000, he slipped on a water-toboggan slide and thumped his head on the bottom of a swimming pool, suffering a fracture of the vertebra; an injury which often leads to paralysis. He was told he may never play the sport again.

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite nevertheless refused to languish in self-pity. Instead, he composed a list of ten goals he wished to realise in football. They included returning to action; signing a professional contract at Sao Paulo; earning a Brazil cap at senior level; joining a major club in Italy or Spain; and appearing at the FIFA World Cup.

It appeared preposterously ambitious. It proved comfortably attainable. Central to Kaka's accomplishment was his ability to cruise past opponents with the balance and elegance of a champion racehorse, the passing that made his virtual second sight lethal, and the capacity to consistently score from distance with shots as precise as they were powerful.

"He's got everything. When he plays like that he's unstoppable," said then Ecuador coach Luis Suarez after his side had succumbed 5-0 to a Kaka-inspired Brazil in a South Africa 2010 qualifier one year ago.

Source : www.fifa.com