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Former Ballon d'Or winner Kaka has been sounded out by Indian Super League (ISL) clubs if reports from people close to the player's agent are to be believed.
According to sources, Gustavo Conceicao - a teammate of Kaka's during his brief stay at Orlando City back in 2015 and a former Mohun Bagan player - hasn't painted a rosy picture of Indian football to Kaka. Gustavo has not recommended the ISL to Kaka given the trouble the Brazilian defender faced during his short spell in India.
Kaka, 35, who is currently the captain of Major League Soccer (MLS) outfit Orlando City, is likely to spurn the advances from India and stay put at his current club at least until his current contract expires at the end of this year.
The ISL will kickstart from November this year and it is unclear what ambitions various ISL clubs have at this moment regarding the former AC Milan superstar. The former World Cup winner will have MLS Cup commitments from October to December, hence it would be foolhardy to expect the Brazilian to jump ship midway through the current season.
All the transfer news in the ISL have recently been dominated by domestic transfers, with the domestic player draft scheduled for later this month. Only a handful of clubs has been actively recruiting foreign names, namely Bengaluru FC, Pune City and FC Goa.
Kaka has had an illustrious career so far and will definitely raise the profile of the Indian game should he join the ISL.
That being said, the former record signing for Real Madrid is not anywhere close to linking up with an ISL outfit since clubs have only enquired about his availability and the player will, in all probability, rebuff those advances from India.
It is not surprising to see Indian clubs sound out Kaka over a potential transfer. In 2015, Atletico de Kolkata's co-owner Sourav Ganguly revealed that negotiations had been going on between his club and Kaka that eventually fell through.
Big-name stars like Kaka have always caught the fancy of ISL clubs, but with the player being tied to Orlando City until the end of December, Indian football fans will once again miss out on watching one of their favourite modern day footballers strut his stuff on Indian pitches.
