AC Milan legend Ricardo Kaka believes that the club are in safe hands while Paolo Maldini is in charge as the director, revealing that he often speaks with him still.
Interviewed by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Kakà spoke firstly about Milan getting back into the last 16 of the Champions League, something that hasn’t happened since he was there in 2013-14.
“It’s beautiful. I would like to come to Italy for the match against Tottenham. Milan have taken the right direction, I like the long-term work set by the club,” he said (via SempreMilan.it).
It is a strange season this season given the World Cup being in the winter thus effectively splitting the campaign in half, and Kaka believes that the tournament in Qatar will be a real spectacle.
“It will affect a bit of everything: the moment of the season, the warm but not too hot temperature, the lack of travel and therefore the possibility of starting the recovery process immediately after the game. The great champions will be at the top. I expect vertical football and many goals, as happens in the Champions League. The World Cup usually follows the trend and indicates in which direction we are going.”
Brazil are one of the pre-tournament favourites given their experience playing in hot climates and with such a wealth of attacking talent to be able to pick from.
“History says it, but Brazil are favoured because it has been working on this project for some time. Tite’s confirmation was positive because now the group has the right experience and can handle the bad moments,” Kaka said.
“In the last two years Vinicius, Rodrigo, Antony have grown. And others. I didn’t know Bremer until a few months ago, but he’s very strong. Behind Brazil I put Argentina and France. And as a surprise, I point to Serbia, who are very dangerous.”
Kaka also made a comment on Italy, who will not be at the World Cup after losing a play-off against North Macedonia, which comes after they did not make the 2018 tournament either.
“Your exclusion from the World Cup also hurts me. But we need to be optimistic, also because Italy won the European Championship: if you add Brazil and Argentina, it’s a small World Cup. Perhaps the elimination of 2018 was a little underestimated, but I see that now there are many interesting young players.”
Finally, Kaka spoke about his friend and former team-mate Paolo Maldini who is now the technical director of the Rossoneri and is carrying out an interesting project that is bearing fruit.
“Knowing Paolo, I knew he would do anything well. He is a very intelligent, competent and correct man. Luckily he has decided to be the manager of Milan… We talk to each other every now and then. I studied, I took three sports management courses, one in sports business and one as a coach. And maybe I’ll be a sporting director.”
