Kaka has completed his £56m move to Real Madrid from AC Milan, signing a six-year contract, marking Florentino Perez's first player signing since taking over as President last month.
This is a huge signing for El Real, a real marquee player and proven international superstar. It harks back, of course, to Perez's previous tenure of Galacticos but it says more about the state of Italian football. Serie A has lost arguably its best player and most marketable asset, a player without whom, as this season proved, AC Milan struggle. Ronaldinho is fat and past it, and as such is no replacement. It marks what many knew already - the official seperation of Serie A from the top echelon now occupied solely by La Liga and the Premiership. If Zlatan Ibrahimovic leaves Inter, which is being rumoured, the gap could widen.
AC Milan could yet find themselves more troubled in the transfer market as Chelsea make eyes at their other Brazilian genius, Alexandre Pato. Personally I think Pato would be mad to join, mainly because Chelsea are a basket case club who will sack Ancelotti within the year, but also because he is clearly not ready for the physicality of the premiership. If Pato does go, however, it leaves the AC Milan squad looking decidedly thin and ever more ageing, with the likes of Inzaghi, Shevchenko, Seedorf, Gattuso and Ambrosini still the heartbeat of the team.
Serie A clubs, with the possible exception of Inter, can no longer compete either on or off the pitch with their Spanish and English counterparts. We can put this down in part to more lucrative TV deals elsewhere, some eccentric team ownership, the fact that many Italian clubs do not own their own stadia, and the worsening image of Italian football and crowds in the media. It seems a long way off that Italy will solve these issues, despite a new TV deal being forthcoming.
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