The Italian sports daily reports that the final decision rests with the 2007 World Player of the Year – meaning the club would be happy to accept a landmark deal which would also see Dida and Gennaro Gattuso move to Manchester.
Although there is no official confirmation as to the potential price tag, some reports have it pegged at €100m (£90.77m). That would double the current world record, set when Real Madrid paid Juventus £46m for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. However, the issue has been clouded by their reported interest in Dida and Gennaro Gattuso, and the €100m fee may include their transfer fees.
Targeting the Brazilian goalkeeper and Italian midfielder may have been a ploy to get Milan to the negotiation stage over Kaka, but City could do with the reinforcements. Dida, now 35, is out of favour with coach Carlo Ancelotti but would provide competition and guidance for young Joe Hart.
Battling midfielder Gattuso – a popular success when he played for Rangers a decade ago, and often linked since with a moved to Manchester United – would provide much-needed steel in front of defence, but only once he has recovered from a knee ligament injury expected to keep him out until summer.
City seem perfectly happy to smash the transfer record to land Kaka – whose name has been linked with the club since Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club for £200m last summer.
Milan officials yesterday met a four-man City delegation, thought to include executive chairman Garry Cook, two representatives of Sheikh Mansour and transfer mediator Kia Joorabchian. The delegation returned to Manchester last night with a spring in their step but without a definite answer. That remains up to Kaka himself.
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