“Winning a World Cup doesn’t change an...

“Winning a World Cup doesn’t change anything. I won it all, and I’m not the best in history. Messi is a genius but the best and most complete in history is Cristiano Ronaldo.”

Kaka has revealed that Neymar is his favourite player in football’s modern era. The Brazilian rose to prominence playing for both AC Milan and Real Madrid in his career, where he became one of the greatest-ever goal-scoring midfielders in history.

In 589 appearances at club level, Kaka found the back of the net 187 times, and provided a further 157 assists, winning eight trophies, including a Champions League. His 2006/07 season with Milan was particularly memorable, with his 29 goal involvements in 48 appearances in all competitions, seeing him become the recipient of the Best FIFA Men’s Player and UEFA Best Player in Europe awards.

Furthermore, he also edged out runners-up Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to become the recipient of the 2007 Ballon d’Or, before they would go on to dominate the award for the next decade. Despite this, he still snubbed them both for Neymar as his personal favourite player of the modern era.

Kaka Named Neymar As His Favourite Player in the Modern Era

He chose to go with a fellow Brazilian over Messi or Ronaldo

Speaking with Spanish outlet Marca, when asked who his favourite of the ‘current world stars’ were, Kaka selected a fellow Brazilian international in Neymar, ahead of two of the greatest players of all time in Messi and Ronaldo, as well as those of Kylian Mbappe and another Brazilian star, Vinicius Junior.

“I don’t know if it’s because we have a great personal relationship, but I love how Neymar plays. Of course, I like to see others like [Kylian] Mbappé, [Lionel] Messi, Cristiano [Ronaldo] or Vinicius Jr himself, but I’ll stick with ‘Ney’.”

After generating a buzz at Brazilian side Santos, and building a reputation for his goalscoring prowess and incredible dribbling ability with a huge repertoire of skills, Neymar earned a move to Spanish giants Barcelona in 2013. It was there where he announced himself as one of the very best players in world football, and was part of Barca’s formidable attacking trio with Messi and Luis Suarez, known as ‘MSN’.

In his time with the La Liga side, he would register 181 goal contributions, winning nine trophies, including his lone Champions League. But in 2017, Neymar wanted to be the outright star on his own team, and so made a big-money switch to Ligue 1 side, Paris Saint-Germain, for a mere £190 million – still the most expensive transfer in football history.

In his time at the Parc de Princes, he registered 173 appearances, scoring 118 goals and adding another 77 assists, and winning a further 14 trophies. Ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, the 32-year-old opted to take on a new challenge – moving to the Saudi Pro League to join Al-Hilal, winning the title in his first season, though his time there has been thwarted by injuries, where he has made just seven appearances, recording four goal contributions.

Nonetheless, once his career is all said and done, he will be considered up there with some of the biggest names in Brazilian lore – if not already – having amassed 128 appearances for his national team, netting 79 times. He was also part of the Brazil squads that won both a silver and a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, and 2016 Rio Olympics – his home Olympic Games – respectively.