Chapter 48: A Wealthy Person Like Me
After the group stage matches of the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship concluded, the tournament moved into the knockout stage, and the draw for the round of 16 was announced.
The United States was set to face Egypt, while France would encounter Germany. Argentina had a challenging opponent lined up, as Brazil would take on Australia. Ukraine's opponent was Paraguay, Costa Rica drew the Czech Republic, Angola met the Netherlands, and the remaining match pitted Ghana against Ecuador.
While some teams celebrated their progress, others were left disappointed to be eliminated.
For neutral fans, the presence of powerhouses like Argentina, Brazil, France, and the Netherlands meant a guarantee of exciting matches ahead. However, for their opponents, the journey in this World Youth Championship might come to an abrupt end.
As the round of 16 approached, the World Youth Championship, which had initially only attracted attention within the football community, began to garner interest from the global media. Many news outlets started reporting on the event.
News articles such as "Top 10 Rising Stars to Watch at the World Youth Championship," "The Four Favorites Analyzed," "Argentina is Beatable," "Milu Spotted in Mendoza," "This is How Football Should be Played," "How Far Can Ukraine Go?" "France Accepts Nothing Less Than the Championship," and "The Netherlands on the Wrong Path" began appearing in the press.
In Brazil, coverage of the tournament also became more frequent, sparking interest among many Brazilians who were initially indifferent to the World Youth Championship.
Kaka, second only to the already Europe-based Ronaldinho, became Brazil's hottest young talent. Discussions about him grew increasingly widespread, and many media outlets camped outside the team hotel, hoping to secure interviews. However, due to Kaka's reluctance and the coach's protection, he only needed to respond briefly before being left alone.
Before the round of 16 kicked off, Kaka had some important matters to attend to, unrelated to football but closely tied to his professional career.
On June 26th, Bosco (Kaka's father), Simone (Kaka's mother), and Digão (Kaka's brother) rushed from São Paulo to Córdoba, Argentina, where the family reunited with Kaka.
While Simone and Digão had come specifically to visit Kaka and watch the World Youth Championship, Bosco had another agenda.
Kaka's first investment in the stock market had finally paid off, and the proceeds had been deposited into Bosco's account.
In early 2000, fueled by the rise of internet technology stocks, the NASDAQ index in the United States soared to over 5,000 points, marking a significant bull market on Wall Street. Countless investors celebrated, but the good times didn't last long. This year, the US tech stock market plunged more than 60%, experiencing one of the worst stock market crashes in history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ also experienced significant declines.
The point is, Kaka used his professional knowledge and memories from his previous life to make some money in the stock market, taking advantage of his foresight and accurate predictions during times of economic crisis to profit, as mentioned earlier.
After all, his name is quite long, right? Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, also known as Kaka.
So, in reality, Kaka made a modest profit, and even persuaded Bosco to invest a small amount, which yielded returns equivalent to three or four years of Bosco's salary, though not a massive sum.
Bosco now felt like he could no longer comprehend his son.
Kaka's exceptional football skills were one thing, but when did he learn how to trade stocks? And with such a keen eye for investment? Was it just from casually reading those so-called professional books during his hospital stay?
With that kind of talent, why bother playing football?
Ah, Bosco might have raised a foolish son...
Bosco felt hurt, and what hurt him even more was that Kaka had rejected his offer to become his agent.
Not only is my son foolish, but he also doesn't trust me...
In contrast to Bosco's resentment towards Kaka, Kaka expressed great satisfaction with Bosco as a father.
He had always known that he was fortunate.
A chosen one.
In many online novels, these four words were almost synonymous with the main character, indicating the weight of the term.
From this, one can understand how favored Kaka was by fate.
A male model's height of around 1.8 meters, a comfortable upbringing and living conditions, near-top-level football education and environment, and the near-death experience at the swimming pool – all these factors made him truly blessed.
But these weren't the luckiest aspects of his life. His fortune lay in being born into such a family.
Living conditions and economic status weren't as important; what mattered was that his family members were dependable.
At least more dependable than the families of many sports stars.
How important is it to have a reliable brother? Just look at Ronaldo's example.
How important is it to have a reliable father? Consider Neymar's case.
However, Kaka had no intention of involving his dependable family members in his work, even though they were the people he trusted the most and would always act in his best interests. But that didn't mean they could do everything to the highest standard.
He wanted to assemble a professional team, not just find an agent.
What is the primary role of an agent? Endorsement deals and transfer negotiations.
But for Kaka, these weren't the focal points of his life and work.
Endorsements? Taking on one or two top-tier deals would suffice. He could set aside some time each year for shooting commercials and participating in charity events, maintaining his fame while earning money; any more would impact his lifestyle. Transfers? Over an entire professional football career spanning a decade or so, three or four transfers would be enough. Why would he need a dedicated agent?
So, his team only needed a business-savvy manager to handle his agency affairs while managing commercial investments, along with strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists, personal doctors, personal nutritionists, and other professionals.
These plans had been on his agenda for a long time, but due to financial constraints, they had remained in the planning stage. Now, with money coming in, he could start implementing them.
Initially, he had intended to postpone these plans until the following year. After all, combining the identities of a football prodigy and a stock market genius was a bit jarring, and his sudden awakening might seem a bit eerie.
If he had taken more time to cultivate and conceal this, the self-taught narrative would have been much more plausible.
Following his original plan of earning money through the World Cup wouldn't have posed such concerns.
Brazil as champions, Germany as runners-up, third place unknown, South Korea fourth.
Brazil 4-0 China, Brazil 2-1 England, South Korea 2-1 Italy, England 1-0 Argentina, and an unknown score between South Korea and Spain, with South Korea advancing on penalties...
These were his memories of that World Cup. Even if Brazil's matches might change due to his presence, as long as the results of the other matches were accurate by more than half, it would be enough.
How much wealth was represented by these memories? For Kaka, given his spending habits and potential achievements in football, the income he could anticipate from this alone would be sufficient for him to live comfortably for the rest of his life.
Unfortunately, professional players couldn't place bets, so he had to set his sights on the stock market instead.
Luckily, although his parents were a bit surprised, they didn't have any intentions of turning Kaka over to the authorities.
So, he could now start assembling his dedicated team.
How important is it to have a reliable team?
You could look at Cristiano Ronaldo's example. Having a strong and dependable team around him, including coaches, medical staff, and advisors, has been crucial to Ronaldo's success and longevity in football. A reliable team can help a player perform at their best, stay healthy, and make the right decisions both on and off the field.
With the money he had earned from his stock investments, Kaka could finally start building his own professional support team. This would allow him to focus on his football career while having experts handle the various aspects of his life and career, such as endorsements, investments, and physical training. Having a reliable team would be just as important as having a dependable family, if not more so, in helping Kaka reach his full potential as a football player.
(end of chapter)