Roman Abramovich has made a personal attempt to bring Kaká to Chelsea as Carlo Ancelotti’s first signing. The Times understands that Abramovich met Kaká’s father and agent, Bosco Leite, in Milan last week after sealing the capture of Ancelotti, who is set to be announced as the club’s new manager.
Abramovich is prepared to shatter the world transfer record to secure Kaká and would have no problem concluding a deal with AC Milan, who are resigned to his departure this summer, but coming to an agreement with the player’s representatives is proving more difficult.
The Chelsea owner was told by Leite that Kaká would prefer to join Real Madrid, who confirmed last night that Florentino Pérez has returned to the club as president after the three other candidates for the post pulled out. Real could announce the Brazilian’s £60 million transfer this week, breaking the world record fee of £45.6 million that they paid for Zinédine Zidane eight years ago.
Abramovich has been courting Kaká for several seasons so such a rejection represents a considerable blow, but he will continue his attempts to refashion the squad. The Russian has become far more involved at Chelsea in the past three months, taking personal charge of the managerial hunt and making regular visits to the training ground.
Ancelotti has recommended that Chelsea try to bring Andrea Pirlo, the Italy midfield player, with him to Stamford Bridge, but it is unclear whether Milan would be willing to sell. Chelsea are already in discussions with CSKA Moscow over the purchase of Yuri Zhirkov, the versatile Russia player, while Sergio Agüero is top of their list of potential strikers.
Abramovich has told Chelsea’s executives that the majority of their business this summer must be self-funding, but is prepared to underwrite the signing of a so-called marquee player. Kaká would certainly have fallen into that category, but with the Brazilian seemingly heading to Madrid, John Terry has urged Chelsea to sign Franck Ribéry or David Villa. Ribéry, the Bayern Munich winger, is also likely to join Real, but Villa, the striker, is definitely available because Valencia are suffering from severe financial problems.
“I think we’ll see Chelsea back and competing for the top players,” Terry said. “I think there’ll be many players we’ll be in for in the summer, but when big players come up . . . we need to show people and let them know that, yes, Chelsea are back.”
Andriy Shevchenko will return to Chelsea with Ancelotti this summer because Milan have no interest in taking up the option to sign the striker permanently after a year on loan. The Ukrainian made little impact as a player in his first two years at Chelsea, but could have a crucial role to play as an interpreter while Ancelotti improves his command of English.
“I think a few of the backroom staff have worked with him before, and Sheva as well,” Terry said. “He speaks very highly of him. If he’s the man to come in, he’s got a great bunch of lads to work with. Knowing him and knowing us, it could be the start of something very good.”
Terry went to some lengths to deny allegations from Claude Makelele that he was involved in José Mourinho’s departure, claiming he had called Abramovich in an attempt to persuade him to change his mind.
“Mourinho called me yesterday and we spoke about it,” Terry said on Saturday. “It’s bizarre because he knows the real truth. I was one of three players phoning Roman at 1am or 2am the night I heard he’d been sacked, asking to keep him on. I was speaking to Peter Kenyon [the chief executive], to Roman, to Eugene [Tenenbaum, a club director] and hoping we could keep him.”
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