Kaká was Messi before Messi. He was a global icon who was lured to an expansion team in an emerging league to help grow soccer in this country. Kaká, as I wrote when he signed with Orlando City a decade ago , was a purple-clad pied piper of the pitch.
“I understood that MLS had a great future and I wanted to be part of helping to grow something,” Kaká said Wednesday in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “When you see how far this league has come in the 10 years since then, I am proud that I was a part of evolution.” Kaká helping blaze the trail for an international icon like Lionel Messi to join MLS is one of the many reasons Orlando City will honor Kaká after Saturday night’s game at Inter&Co Stadium by making him the first inductee into the team’s Legends’ Terrace hall of fame.
I don’t know if there was any debate about who should be the inaugural inductee, but there shouldn’t have been. I guess a case could have been made for the team’s co-founders Phil Rawlins and Kay Rawlins or the team’s popular inaugural coach Adrian Heath, but Kaká was the obvious and right choice. “Kaká’s impact on the game, not just here in the City Beautiful but throughout the global soccer landscape, is one that will be felt for a very long time,” Orlando City chairman Mark Wilf said.
Translation: Before MLS had Messi Mania, it had Kaká Krazieness. Like Messi at Inter Miami, when Kaká signed with Orlando City, he became the highest paid player in .
