Comment

Like Sir Alex Ferguson, I was aghast, stunned and almost knocked myself over when I heard of the amount Manchester City were willing to pay for Kaka. A staggering £243 million!

The deal on offer to AC Milan and Kaka was £108 million apiece, and £27 million in signing fee.

I can only really understand the value of anything if it is in rupees. And converting £243 million into rupees is way beyond my numerical capability.

So, with Google and a friend’s help, here is what I found out — £243 million is Rs 1741 crore.

That’s one-fourth the amount that Mr Ramalinga Raju of Satyam cooked his books
by recently.

So, all Mr Raju had to do was learn to play football like Kaka, then make three clones of himself and get Manchester City to buy all four of him. And his problems would have been solved.

Put differently, Rs 1741 crore could bring almost 62 per cent of India’s population living below the poverty line above it for a day. According to the latest World Bank report, 455 million Indians still live below the povertyline.

Before it gets more complicated, the bottom-line is: £243 million is a lot of money that can be put to better use. Now, AC Milan director Umberto Gandini may be saying in public how much he and the club hopes that Kaka stays at the San Siro. But that sort of an offer is like opening the gates of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and putting out the sign — All are welcome.

Who can resist the temptation? If reports are to be believed, AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti is already thinking of the makeover he can do with that money. He could use the funds to revitalise his ageing squad — seven of Milan’s starting lineup against AS Roma last weekend were over 30.

Players like Buffon, Sergio Ramos, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Karim Benzema, Emmanuel Adebayor and Samuel Eto’o were always Milan’s targets, and Kaka’s going to City could help bring them to the San Siro.

More than that, the Kaka deal, if it goes through, will shatter all records. Zinedine Zidane’s £47 million deal from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2001, the highest transfer fee till now, would be made to look ordinary.

What would it do to the transfer market? To the football world? Petrodollars seem to be taking over the game of the masses. Manchester United’s American owner the Glazer family, Chelsea’s Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich now seem like paper planes in front of the airbus A380 of the Arab Richie Richs.

And, before I forget, Manchester City was taken over by the Abu Dhabi-based Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited on September 1, 2008 for £200 million — £43 million less than what they are willing to pay for Kaka.

Footballers are priceless, didn’t we know!