June 2009, Milan. “Non si vende Kakà!” (“Get your hands off Kakà!”) was the chant that Inter fans repeated, again and again, to mock their heartbroken rossoneri cousins, in grief for their idols’ departure. It was a chant of both joy and relief, as their rivals’ best player had just joined Real Madrid for €67M, meaning that he would never again hurt the nerazzurri during the derby della Madonnina. Or so they thought.

September 2013, Madrid. During the final days of this transfer window, Adriano Galliani, Real Madrid and Kakà reach an agreement for the great comeback. Kakà is a rossonero again, and will wear his number 22 jersey once more. A dream come true for many Milan fans around the world, and a nightmare for their rivals’ supporters, Inter fans in primis. Or is it?

Kakà, Brazilian star, former Ballon d’Or winner, prototype of the modern football player, so simple and elementary in his plays, yet so effective, especially thanks to his speed and quickness. His game plain and unpretentious, vertical and fast, he needs no fakes nor tricks to get past defenders, just his long, powerful legs, to run quicker and stronger. He made football fans fall in love with his game, so pure and different compared to, for example, Cristiano Ronaldo’s. Kakà, at his best, is the essence of the Beautiful Game. But this is not the point. The point is: is he still capable of playing at such a high level? There are several hints that make me believe that “no” is the answer. I will list them here:

1. Kakà is now 31, and is coming off his worst season in Europe. He played 19 times in la Liga, scoring 3 goals. Despite his overall numbers in Spain are not so bad (120 apps and 29 goals), he did only play 20 league games per season on average, and was never among the protagonists of his team, regularly being overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo. His game is very physical, and age does not help, nor do the many injuries he suffered.

2. Milan sold him 4 years ago, and Milan rarely sell their symbols. If they do so, it’s because they don’t believe in them anymore. Something similar happened with Shevchencko, and his comeback was a total failure. Obviously they also had 67 million reasons to sell Kakà, but then again, they turned down a much bigger offer by Man City just a few months before.

3. Ancelotti let him go, he did not believe in him. And he let him go for free, despite the recorded value of €22M that Kakà had on Real Madrd’s balance sheet, which now became a €22M loss. Carlo Ancelotti was his coach at Milan, he was the one to first exploit Kakà’s full potential in Europe, and yet he did not believe he could be useful to Real Madrid’s cause.

In addition, Milan’s history is full of failed comebacks, the latest being the already mentioned Andrij Ševčenko, but also Roberto Donadoni and Ruud Gullit in the mid-1990s. Do you spot any common denominators? Great players (two of them are Ballon d’Or winners, like Kakà), who left an indelible memory of themselves, but who were not able to live up to their fans’ expectations once their ageing selves went back to the red and black side of the San Siro.

Milan’s ambitions this year are tightly linked to Kakà’s performance, as his presence alone affects so many aspects- psychological, technical- of the team. His signing is, by all means, a gamble. And like every gamble made with passion, heart and instinct, rather than with reason and logic, it is even more risky. Maybe the reason why I don’t understand it is because (for obvious reasons) I am not emotionally involved. However, from an external point of view, I would like to understand why a team with players such as Balotelli, El Sharaawy, Pazzini, Robinho, Niang in the attack, and only Mexes and Bonera at center back, would spend a significant amount of money to add Kakà (he signed as a free agent, but still earns a gross salary of €8M per year, plus performance-based bonuses which Milan owes to Real Madrid) and Alessandro Matri (€12M), whilst signing Cristian Zapata and Matias Silvestre - a player who couldn’t make it in the starting lineup of the worst defense of Inter’s history (57 goals conceded) - to “strengthen” their defense.

Milan’s strategy seems contradictory and confused. On the one hand they underwent an important renovation, saying goodbye to almost all the heroes of the 2000s - Gattuso, Ambrosini, Inzaghi, Nesta and so on - and signing young talents from whom to start over a new cycle of victories like Balotelli, El Sharaawy, De Sciglio, Niang, Montolivo, and now Poli. On the other, they mistakenly excluded Niang from the Champions League list of players, and they sign veterans who will inevitably steal significant playing time to players like El Sharaawy, who demonstrated last year to be on the verge of becoming a star.

Hopefully the clubs’ confusion won’t reflect on the playing field. However, after a couple of seasons in which Milan seemed to successfully move away from its past, towards a bright future, they somehow took a step back. What they just did this summer is an excellent, short-term marketing move (the 15.000 group-stage tickets for the Champions League sold yesterday alone are there to demonstrate it), and we know how good Galliani and the rossoneri are at this. This time, however, they did so by touching the emotional chords of the fans, making them re-live a dream. It is only a matter of time before the fans wake up. At that point, will reality be as sweet? Only time will tell.