Former Manchester City CEO Garry Cook explains why Kaka didn’t join the club

Former Manchester City CEO Garry Cook explains why Kaka didn’t join the club
Former Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook has explained why Brazilian superstar Kaka did not join the club in 2009.After City were taken over bySheikh Mansour in 2008, the club set their sights on a number of high-profile signings.4

Manchester City tried to sign Kaka from AC Milan

Their first marquee signing saw Robinho join from Real Madrid in a 32.5million British record transfer deal (at the time).The Brazilian scored 12 goals in his first 19 games, but Citys new owners wanted more star names to come through the door in the 2009 January transfer window.AC Milans Kaka, who won the 2007 Ballon dOr, was their number one target.Cook told Sky Sports: “We sat down with AC Milan and we signed a document that sold the player to Manchester City, so we’d bought him.4

Robinho was Manchester City’s first marquee signing

“We sat down with him and his father and we discussed the terms, but it didn’t appear that he was aligned with where he wanted to go.“The whole story got played out in the media and Kaka was waving his AC Milan shirt out on his balcony and at that time you think we may have been used.“Publicly he’s said he wasn’t convinced and I think that’s a fair assessment.“I actually caught up with him at Robinho’s wedding in Sao Paolo and asked him why he didn’t come, and he said ‘I was at AC Milan and I had Manchester City, what would you do?’ and he’s right.”4

Garry Cook (right) with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak (left) in 2010

Missing out on Kaka would not deter City, who spent big money on Carlos Tevez, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero in the forthcoming years.Those players helped the club end their 35-year trophy drought with a 1-0 win over Stoke City in the FA Cup final in 2011.Cook said: “That day changed the whole dynamics of what we were about.“Brian Kidd [City’s assistant manager] made one comment to me – ‘Garry, when you win the first one, that’s the catalyst that helps you win the rest.’ “I think that that FA Cup win is more symbolic than anything else that we’ve done in the last 10 years, only because of what it created and the way it changed the culture and the mentality of the club.”Cook engineered Sheikh Mansours takeover of City, which saw the Citizens become the richest club in the world.He added: “The deal was very quick, and actually if you look back at it now, it was somewhat professionally naive on both parties.“It was all a bit back of the napkin and a bit surreal really.4

Gary Cook brokered City’s takeover deal

“It was a one page document that said ‘We’re going to buy a football club and can you make sure we get a marquee player at the end of the window’.“The biggest challenge was getting people to come to Manchester City. It was very, very difficult to get people to sign for the club at the time.“During that week, we created a list of marquee players around the world and we tried to identify anyone we could bring to the football club because, if you don’t, the football club doesn’t get taken over.”

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