[Insert Wildly Clever Headline About Kaka's Golden Balls Here]

By: Martha | November 9th, 2007

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a very confident post about how Gigi Buffon was going to become the first goalkeeper since Russia’s legendary Lev Yashin to win the Golden Ball, because that’s what the rumor mill said and, when it comes to their awards, France Football is usually made of leaks. Those rumors, of course, was totally wrong, and the award went to a much smaller man, with less hair. All of which is my way of saying that I’m not falling to that trap again, even if the rumors do say that presumed front-runner Ricky Kaka has in fact come out on top in the voting and will receive the award when the ceremony takes place early next month.

Obviously, if you’re going to guess, Kaka is a safe name to throw out there — people have been pimping him for the award since early summer, and it’s hard to really argue against him. That said, though, the story started with Sky Italia and Tuttosport (who actually claimed that Milan VP Adriano Galliani had announced the award was Kaka’s) and we all know at least 50% of the latter’s stories are fictional, so it’s not as if we’ve got a reliable source on our hands. Sky Italia’s claim is that Kaka has a plane ticket for Japan, where the ceremony will be held, which hasn’t been informed, and Galliani, of course, is playing coy, insisting he doesn’t know nothing about nothing.

The thing is, there’s actually a vote for this thing — it’s not like picking The Pope or something — so while Kaka is a logical choice, there’s no way of knowing who the hell people are going to be feeling (so to speak) the day they had to send their ballots in. I mean David Beckham is on the list of finalists, and we all know how dominant he’s been in MLS. Oh, wait.

Category: AC Milan, Rumors & News, Serie A

Tags: AC Milan, France Football, Galliani, Golden Ball, Kaka, Rumors & News, Serie A

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• chris |  November 9th, 2007 at 6:37 am

  
  
  

  “and it’s hard to really argue against him.”

  Well, maybe if this was a Champions League award…

  Posted from United States

  

• Martha |  November 9th, 2007 at 7:36 am

  
  
  

  Well, it’s was mostly a World Cup award last year, so I guess that’ll work …

  Posted from United States

  

• Marco |  November 9th, 2007 at 9:02 pm

  
  
  

  Ditto on Tuttosport Martha, they’re about as reliable as The Sun. On this one though, I really don’t see anyone else than Kaká take the trophy.

  Posted from United States

  

• Magnusson |  November 9th, 2007 at 10:26 pm

  
  
  

  The thing is, France Football has decided to change the way they were giving awards and now only wins count since mathias Sammer won it. Kaka should have won if we’re talking foorball season but the golden ball is siupposed to be rewarding the civil year. And aside from the Champions League and being a great player, kaka has not started his 2007/2008 season yet in my opinin. I’ve watched most Serie A games with Milan and they’re not there yet. This award should go to him but there are still two months. But if we’re talking consistency, it’s Drogba’s year.
  As for their confidentiality, France Football should come back to their formula of before. They used to go with all their journalists and team to the city of the winner, give him the award live there and shoot it over there. Now they want it to be on a monday in paris with a ceremony and shit.And the pictures are like three weeks old. If they want to keep the secrecy, they should come back to those days. I remeber when thierry Gilardy opened George Weah’s door in Milan or next to the fireplace at Matthias Smamer’s spot. I spent an hour trying to guess who that was.

  Posted from France

  

• Martha |  November 10th, 2007 at 5:13 am

  
  
  

  Magnusson, I agree — it’s absurd. They’re going to send photographers soon, how is that not going to be noticed, whoever the winner is?

  Posted from United States

  

• andrea10 |  November 11th, 2007 at 7:12 am

  
  
  

  i think gattuso should win, he might not score a lot of goals but he’s an amazing player

  Posted from United States

  

• oushana |  February 18th, 2008 at 9:42 pm

  
  
  

  kaka is a good soccer player i like him :)

  Posted from United States

  

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