Kaka backs Neymar move to Real Madrid

MOSCOW, 26 JUNE  — Former Brazil star Kaka has urged Neymar to seize the chance to join Real Madrid, should his compatriot decide to leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer.
The European champions are reportedly seeking to sign the 26-year-old this summer, just a year after his record 222 million-euro move to the French capital from Barcelona.
“It’s a personal decision,” Kaka told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “If he signs for Real Madrid now, maybe they’ll say he only went to Paris to build a bridge to get to Madrid. But if that’s what he wants, he has to do it and be ready to manage the situation.”
“There’s always a lot of pressure on him. In Brazil it’s incredible. They’ll talk about his performances but also his hairstyles and the bags he carries. He’s a great player, but also a celebrity and it isn’t easy to manage all of that.”
Neymar has been voted in the top three of the Ballon d’Or in two of the past three seasons. Kaka believes his former national teammate could end Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s duopoly on football’s highest individual honor, though he declined to predict when that might happen.
“It’s too soon to say,” said Kaka, himself the winner of the Ballon d’Or in 2007. “He is 26 and is reaching the age of greater maturity. He is one of the candidates to win the Ballon d’Or in the coming years though because he is improving. Messi and Ronaldo, because of their age, will go through a physical decline.
“But Cristiano is 33 and has surprised in a positive way so you can’t say when that [decline] will happen,” the former AC Milan and Real Madrid midfielder added. – XINHUA