Ronaldo next?

As widely expected, Brazilian midfield ace, Kaka, has joined Real Madrid for GBP59 million. His move also signifies the beginning of the second phase of Florentino Perez' Galacticos experiment at Madrid. It also signifies that Mr Perez, as delusional as he is, is a man of his word.

And since he's said signing Cristiano Ronaldo is next on his to-do list for this summer, we might as well assume Ronaldo will be at the Bernebau next season.

But before we get carried away wondering whether this "dream midfield partnership" comprising Kaka and Ronaldo will actually translate to some success for Madrid, I'd like to point out the hypocrisy in some of the things the Brazilian star said in his first press conference after leaving AC Milan.

To claim that he's joining Madrid because of Milan's financial woes is about the worst excuse anyone's ever given to leave a club. (If only Luis Figo had thought of this when he left Barcelona to join Madrid). If Kaka was only leaving the Rossoneri to shore up Berlusconi's bank account then he should've gone to Chelsea. Or even Man City.

He also claims to have been contemplating a move to Madrid for sometime now. Was this around the same time he kept insisting to the world he would remain in Italy with Milan? And lastly, he adds that some precious advice from pal David Beckham sealed the deal. I don't know how to put this but the last person Beckham convinced to join Madrid was Michael Owen and we all know how that turned out.

As for Ronaldo moving to Madrid, it seems pretty clear that Perez is willing to do what it takes to bring in the biggest names in football to the Bernebau to create the Galacticos version 2.0 so I guess we can expect an offer to be made to Man Utd in the next few days. And this time, I don't think Ferguson's going to resist as much.

But will Kaka and Ronaldo make the desired impact? Apart from increasing Real Madrid's t-shirt sales immediately, there's no guarantee the two will hit it off on the pitch (especially when you consider Ronaldo's tantrums whenever he's not in the limelight).

And even if they do somehow develop an understanding on the pitch and return Madrid to its winning ways, is that a guarantee there will no longer be overshadowed by Barcelona?