Most brazilian footballers come from poor families and sport is one of their only ways to get out of this state. Of course, there are exceptions and Kaka is one of them, as he was born in a relatively rich family that encouraged him to focus on both school and soccer at the same time.
Playing for Sao Paulo's youth team, he was already considered one of the future stars of Brazilian soccer and at age 17 he even had the chance for a move in Europe, although not necessarily at a big club, as Turkish side Gaziantepspor made Sao Paulo an offer. Despite the Turkish team being a possible launch pad to a big European club, the deal was off as Sao Paulo requested 1.5 million dollars, a heavy price for a youngster.At the age of 18, he was taken for the senior squad of Sao Paulo for the first time and even started playing in a few matches, gaining more and more confidence. However, his escalating performances were brutally stopped by a career-threatening injury, when the young Ricardo Kaka slipped at a swimming pool fracturing his back.
Not only did doctors believe he would never again play soccer, but they feared the worse, as the injury could easily lead to a paralysis.
Fortunately for the footballer, Kaka managed to miraculously recover and even came back on the pitch the next season! Since then, grateful to God that He saved his life, Kaka donates one tenth of his yearly salary to the Brazilian Church. But the miracle didn't stop here. Just one year after recovering from his injuries Kaka drew the eyes of Brazil's national team staff. Making his debut for Brazil, Kaka was ready for a European career.
Despite playing one more season for Sao Paulo, his tremendous performances, having scored 23 goals in 58 matches for the club and also contributing to several others with his assists, earned him a visit from AC Milan's scouts.
Impressed by the young Brazilian's vision, passing ability and dribbles, Silvio Berlusconi, Milan's club owner had no second thoughts when he had to sign the 8.6 million dollars deal for Kaka. Later on, Berlusconi would describe this sum as being "peanuts" when compared to the footballer's tremendous success.
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