Playing Director: Kaka or Robinho.

By: chris | August 11th, 2008

Say you’re playing a video game. Or even better yet, say you’re Roman Abramovich and your entire life is nothing more than a video game with the world at your fingertips. You’ve got a ruble tree in the backyard and your new coach has decided that he wants just one more player to complete his squad, which means there’s essentially no price which cannot be met. And with the never ending search for joga bonito still at the forefront, you’ve set your sites on two uber-flashy Brazilian attackers. So, who do you go for: Kaka or Robinho?

On the pitch the edge would have to go to Kaka. The Ballon D’Or committee may be a bit, uh, imperfect, but winning a Golden Ball still means quite a bit. (Not to mention the Champions League run which essentially won him that BDO.) Robinho is obviously very, very good, with the potential to be even better, but their value is represented in their transfer tags fairly appropriately: Kaka somewhere waaaaaaaaay over €50m – with some rumors mentioning an insane 9 figures – and Robinho somewhere under €50m.

And that’s where it gets tricky. Kaka may be the better player right now, but he’s got a few factors working both against himself and for Robinho. Price is obviously one. With the right transfer guru you could buy a damn good team with the scratch you’d save “downsizing” from Kaka to Robinho – and that’s before we talk salary. Age is another, with Robinho having two years on his elder.

Now we’ve got Kaka’s issues with his knee, the long term effects of which no one is really predicting with any confidence right now. How would you like to spend the GDP of Estonia on a player only to see him limp through the first few months – or even years – of his contract? No thanks.

Then, of course, there’s off the field. What do you think the chances are Kaka would ask a security guard for 40 condoms unless he was about to hand them out in a sex ed class which he was teaching at the local high school? Slim and none. The only way he’s going to get into off the field trouble in London is by asking the wrong stranger on the street “Can I talk to you about Jesus?” and becoming the victim of assault and battery. Robinho? Wouldn’t exactly rule it out. Actually, I can already sense the Daily Mail salivating from across the pond.

Both would likely go – Robinho hasn’t exactly been subtle about it, and someone in the Kaka camp spilled the beans about his willingness recently – and both clubs will more than likely say “alright, we’d just be imbeciles to turn this down” at some point, making a deal workable. So if you’re Big Boss and Peter Kenyon, who do you throw your money at?

I’d buy…
( polls)