"Kaka played 20 minutes for the world selection against Real Madrid and scored a goal," said Ribeiro, reflecting on Kaka's time at Sao Paulo. "We spoke with Florentino Perez, who said that he wanted Kaka.

"Two months later, I spoke with Jorge Valdano, who was the manager then and he said that he also would like to sign Kaka, but at that moment they had (Zinedine) Zidane and (Luis) Figo and Kaka would not play.

"Back then he would have cost £4 million."