Kaka announces retirement from professional football

Kaka is done making football look simple.

In conversation with Galvao Bueno of Esporte Espetacular, the 35-year-old announced his retirement as a professional footballer and said he'd like to become a manager and sporting director. The announcement was made at the Morumbi, Sao Paulo's stadium, and came 10 years after he won the Ballon d'Or, football's highest individual honour.

"My final word is that the cycle of my career as a professional player ends here," Kaka declared.

Kaka donned Brazil's yellow shirt at three World Cups and won football's most prestigious tournament in 2002. At the club level, he represented Sao Paulo, AC Milan, Real Madrid, and Orlando City SC. It was during his first stint with the Rossoneri that he won the Ballon d'Or, and he remains the last footballer other than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to win the award.

"I needed some time to think and make a very quiet decision, very calm and very conscious of what I would like for my professional life," Kaka stated. "Then I asked some very close people - my parents, my brother, my girlfriend, and the wife of my brother, five people - I asked that the people do a period of prayers. And studying, seeing what happened at that moments, proposals. I went to Europe to see some games, to feel the excitement of the game there, where football really has its maximum point. And, very conscious, I arrived at the conclusion that it's the moment to close my career as a professional player."

Kaka, whose professional career started at Sao Paulo in 2001, reportedly received a proposal from the Tricolor, and one from Milan to keep playing and then become the Rossoneri's manager.

Reacting to Kaka's announcement, Sao Paulo said the doors to his house will always be open, AC Milan declared that he'll forever be a Rossonero, and Orlando City wished him a happy retirement.