Why Ricardo Kaka's Legacy Will Be Tainted After Rejoining Milan

It's perhaps the hardest thing to digest as an avid sports fan—seeing the inevitable decline of your favorite athletic hero.

Milan took a gamble by bringing in a Ricardo Kaka that hasn't been himself in four seasons. Even in his last year with Milan, he looked like a shadow of the player that nearly single-handedly gifted Milan the Champions League trophy in 2007 against Liverpool. 

It's a situation that's eerily reminiscent of Andriy Shevchenko's bizarre comeback.

Shevchenko left Milan in 2006 right at the end of his prime to join Chelsea for €43.8m, which seemed to be a decent price to pay for a former Ballon d'Or winner, and one of the most potent strikers of his time.

What ensued was one of the most inexplicable drop-offs in recent memory. Long gone was the memory of Shevchenko scoring 20 goals or more per season. He only managed nine strikes in 48 league matches with the London outfit.

To make matters worse, Milan sporting director Adriano Galliani took the Ukrainian legend back on loan in the 2008-09 season. He failed to score a goal in 18 domestic matches. No statistic will be able to recount just how unrecognizable he looked to Milan fans that still had memories of his world-class displays up front.

For all of the glory Shevchenko brought the Rossoneri, seeing this languid, slow and misfiring player was almost too uncomfortable to bear. 

Despite all of the glory that Shevchenko had with the Rossoneri, the nostalgic move made by the Milan higher-ups somewhat tainted the memory many had of the fallen star.

As a Milan fan, the parting thoughts I had of one of Milan's finest strikers was of him slumped at the end of the bench, looking at his teammates with a glazed expression. 

The reason I bring up the story of Andriy Shevchenko's second half of his career is because the same exact thing is about to happen with Kaka.

Sometimes it's better to remember these idols just as they were when they won your heart, instead of the catatonic version they became after a variety of reasons affected their play.

This isn't so much to say that every aging athlete should be looked upon differently in the twilight of their career, but instead to highlight Milan's peculiarity when dealing with former beloved stars who moved on. 

Perhaps it would have been better to let them drift away in anonymity, rather than to see it first hand in such dramatic fashion.

Had Kaka and Shevchenko stayed with Milan all along, their decline in skill might have been much easier to handle, as the change would've been gradual through the years.

Instead, fans will be left with a parting memory of Kaka which far differs from the speed gazelle who would glide effortlessly past opposing defenders. 

For a player of Kaka's worldwide stature, it's possible that marketing reasons were a bigger reason for the Summer Swoop than what he'd actually produce on the field.

Either way, it was another nostalgia-fueled mistake by Milan, which will leave a sour taste in the mouth of thousands. 

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