When Kaka plays a game, his T-shirt says “I belong to Christ”

Posted 6:15pm CT  Jan. 5, 2008 in Minneapolis
LONDON 12:15pm 6/1 – JO’BURG 2:15am 6/1 – MANILA 8:15am 6/1 – SYDNEY 11:15am 6/1

By Gloriscope staff

For any soccer player, this is the ultimate dream: to be named the World’s Best Soccer Player of the Year by the international football federation FIFA. What happens when a devout Christian wins that award?

Last December, that coveted trophy was awarded to the 25-year-old Brazilian player Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, better known as Kaka. He is a midfielder for the Italian soccer club AC Milan and a member of the Brazilian national soccer team.

At the gala award ceremony last December in Zurich, Switzerland, Kaka said he would share his trophy with the people of his Brazilian church and bring it to Sao Paolo. And so he did. He flew with the trophy to Brazil and left it at his church during the New Year Eve’s church service.

“I bring here two awards – one is my son, who is coming soon. The other is this FIFA trophy. I want to give it to God and place it in this church, in Lord’s house, so that everyone can see it,” he said.

The trophy is now on display in his church, the Igreja Apostolica Renascer em Cristo (Apostolic Church Rebirth in Christ). This is a Pentecostal church founded in Sao Paolo in 1986, which has about 1,500 sister churches around Brazil. (In Brazil, Pentecostal churches are often called “evangelical.”)

The news of Kaka’s trophy spread across all the sister churches and across the entire Brazil, a country with a national passion for soccer. Brazil with its 190 million people is the largest country in South America.

Kaka is a modest, humble young man with a deep love of God. He says he wants to become a pastor when he stops playing soccer.

“When I was young, I dreamt of becoming a professional player for Sao Paolo and to play a match with the national team. But the Bible tells us that life gives you more than what you ask for and that’s what has happened to me.”

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV))

Kaka frequently speaks publicly about his faith in Jesus Christ and displays his love of God. Whenever he scores a goal, he almost always raises both of his arms to the sky, to thank God.

Last December in Japan, in the final match of FIFA’s Club World Cup, Kaka showed a T-shirt that said “I belong to Christ” after he had scored the goal that beat Argentina’s Boca Juniors. He later gave that T-shirt to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Kaka wore a T-shirt with that inscription a few times before at important sport occasions.

Kaka was born in the Brazilian capital Brasilia on April 22, 1982. He got his nickname Kaka, which is a common Brazilian nickname for Ricardo, from his little brother Digao, who could not pronounce “Ricardo.”

In October 2000, at the age of 18, Kaka suffered an accident that was a milestone in his faith. Coming down a water slide, he hit his head at the bottom of the pool and fractured the spine in his neck. He risked being paralyzed and bedridden, unable to play soccer any more.

This was a career-threatening accident. But his injury healed and the worst did not happen. He was able to return to soccer.

Kaka believes that it was God in His grace who saved him from paralysis and allowed him to play soccer again. In his thankfulness for God’s grace, Kaka raises his arms to the sky whenever he scores a goal. And whenever he plays a match, he always wears his T-shirt “I belong to God” under his team shirt. He also tithes a part of his income to his church.

Kaka signed a soccer player contract with Sao Paolo at the age of 15. He was very good at playing soccer and leading his youth team.  He led them to win the coveted Youth Cup (Copa de Juvenil).

On December 23, 2005, Kaka married Caroline Celico at the Christ Church in Sao Paolo. He stayed a virgin until his wedding.

As a member of the Brazilian national soccer team and playing the fifth season for AC Milan, a leading Italian national soccer club, Kaka is famous throughout the world. He was also awarded the title UEFA’s Club Footballer of the Year in 2007.

Last December, Kaka won the France Football magazine’s coveted award Ballon d’Or (the Golden Ball) as the world’s number one player. The British Magazine World Soccer named Kaka the world’s football player of the year.

Kaka is the poster boy of today’s soccer world throughout the world, and es[pecially in Latin America and Italy. His imaginative soccer play and deep Christian faith is making an impact on millions of young men and women.

But Kaka always remembers God. “I don’t win alone,” he said last December. “I want to thank God for all the victories and achievements I had this year as a player.”

Kaka, a young man of God, is an ambassador of Christ in international soccer, the world’s largest spectator sport.

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TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!

Published in the U.S.A. Copyright © 4T4C News Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.