\n<\/p>\n
But those fraught relationships are behind him now. These days, Kaka can relax a little. He is spending this World Cup partnering with DoorDash in the American market. Otherwise, life is fairly quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n A North American World Cup, he believes, can only help the game grow.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt’s really important for the development of football in the U.S. Hosting a tournament like the World Cup, it’s really nice to see the players, the coaches, and different sports cultures,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n He remains aware of the changes happening across the sport, too. Kaka noted that the expected shift in college soccer\u2019s calendar toward a year-round setup could be significant for player development in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI saw that the NCAA changed a few things for the next two years. They\u2019re saying that it’s not just half of the year, the season will be the whole year. I think that it’s a really good improvement for developing players in the U.S.,\u201d Kaka said.<\/span><\/p>\n It is a fairly detailed observation for someone who has not played in the United States since 2017. But Kaka says he still keeps close tabs on the places that shaped his career.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI love to follow most of the teams and countries that I played in. I know the country better, the clubs. It\u2019s always on my GPS to see what\u2019s going on, and what they are trying to do to develop football in the U.S.,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n MLS, where he finished his career with Orlando City SC, is only going to get bigger, he believes.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMLS is still growing, we see these big names coming. Now we have Leo (Messi) in MLS. That\u2019s really nice, and it\u2019s good to see how the league is developing,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n And, more broadly, the pressure is off. Kaka felt it as a player, carried it for Brazil and ultimately saw the opportunity slip away perhaps a little too quickly. Now, he can enjoy the World Cup as a fan.<\/span><\/p>\n This Brazil squad is not the favorite. But it has a chance. For Kaka, that might just be enough.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really hoping that this is the good moment for Brazil to win the World Cup again,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wish that Brazil can win the sixth star, back in the U.S.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" But those fraught relationships are behind him now. These days, Kaka can relax a little….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}