Kaká's Christian Faith & Marriage

Kaká

His marriage with Carol Cerico, and their FAITH.

The footballer and his wife talk about their story of life,
their Christian faith and the blessing of their marriage

In 2000, at the age of 18, Ricardo Kaká suffered a freak in a serious accident while he was beginning to emerge as the special footballing talent of Brazil. While he was in a swimming club, he plunged down a waterslide and hit his head on the bottom of the pool. He broke his vertebrae and the doctors feared that the injury might leave him paralysed. Thank God, he got better, and within weeks, he was back on the pitch;

Kaká praying at the soccer field 

“Each day God was giving me strenght and I was praying to Him. All the doctors told me that I was very lucky to be able to move and walk again. I said to them: 'Thank you, but it's not luck. It is God showing me that He have a purpose to my life through soccer. I don't believe in coincidences, If I were not be able to play soccer', God would have used me in another way.”

Two years later, in 2002, and whihe he was playing for São Paulo FC, Kaká met Caroline Celico, a brazilian young woman whom with he fell in love. Carol was a student that, at that time, was a Catholic. However, she started reading the Bible and became evangelical. Regarding this, she recalls,

“I had always been referred as a Catholic... but in fact, I came from a family in which we had spoken about everything: spiritualism, feng shui, meditation, superstition, horoscopes and more mystical things. Until the day I found something that satisfied me: God. One way or another, in one place or another, in God I found something much bigger than what had once been explained to me, [more] than I had been taught...”. 

The relationship between Kaká and Carol was growing up together within the same faith, and it remained, even thoughhe had to move from Brazil to Italy in 2003. After that, they decided to get married, on 23 December 2005 at the “Rebirth In Christ Church” in São Paulo.

Among the 600 guests to the wedding, were the coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, and the famous players Ronaldo, Julio Baptista, Dida and Cafu. During the ceremony, the choir sang a song that had been composed by Kaká himself, for his bride. The song was named “Presente de Deus” which in English means “God's Gift”.

Kaká believes God chose him, and therefore he has testified about his faith, which he considers vitally important in all the days of his life and which he manifests openly.

When Kaká scores a goal, something that he usually does, he lifts up his arms to the heaven in gratitude. When Brazil won the World Cup in 2002, and when Milan triumphed again in the Champions League final of 2007, he tore off his team strip to reveal a T-shirt with the words: "I belong to Jesus."

In 2007, Kaká's team won the Milan's Champions League over Liverpool, and he would be awarded with the “European football Ballon d'Or” and dubbed the best “FIFA's World Footballer of the Year”. Next year, he was named the most influencial and famous footballer of the whole planet, and one of TIME Magazine's 100 people with most influence all around the world, having the 29th position.

Kaká holds his family values and Christian principles. He never drinks alcohol, nor chase after women. He even has confessed that he was a virgin until he married his “childhood sweetheart”. His favourite book, he says, is the Bible. His favourite band is a Gospel-rock band called "Redemption" ('Resgate', in Portuguese).

When he was asked in an interview what had inspired him in the crossroads of his life and his career, he said that the key had come to him when he was still very young. He says:

"I learned that it is faith that decides whether something will happen or not. Thank my parents I grow up with biblical formation, but one day I went further and I experienced a new personal experience with God”.

Carol’s first pregnancy came out by surprise because she had been diagnosed with polycystic ovaries. After months trying to get pregnant, their first child Luca Celico Leite was born in 2008, which made the couple very happy. A year later, when passing a cream on the child, Carol would felt a lump in his abdomen and took the boy to doctors in Milan (where his family lived before Kaka was transferred to Madrid). According the doctors, nothing had been found, but Caroline had a feeling, and decided to take the child to Brazil: "I’m a mother and I have feelings, I took the trip to Sao Paulo and took him to the pediatrician there.”

Luca had to be hospitalized and operated because the doctors detected a small tumor that, hopefully, was removed successfully. “Thank God it was benign. The surgery lasted little, but was the longest half-an-hour of my life” she said in a thankful voice.

Three years later, her second child, Isabella was born, and Caroline became no more no less than a Christian pastor who started preaching in Europe and via internet. During 2009, Kaká received criticism from people who were interested more in the way he plays soccer, than what's inside of him, “Some friends lost contact with us because he wasn’t playing that well.” says his wife.

It was also in 2009 when they both stopped going to a charismatic church called “Renascer”. Carol says that she saw things that she had never seen before, things she had been told about, but she had never admitted it. Carol and Kaká confessed to be against the theology of prosperity, a common lie on many churches nowadays which practically state that “God will make you rich”.

They explain that that is why they left the Brazilian Church: "They were teaching things that were not in the Bible". Carol says, referring to abuses in money in the congregation, “It became a business that needed to be administered”, she claims, “and I didn’t want that for me.” She says she was trying to please people instead of God and that is why today they don't attend any church, saying that they prefer to pray and worship God at home. “My daily life is about talking to God all the time. Many times I talk to my husband or friends who’ve read the Bible through a theological perspective. But I have moments when I need to talk to God alone.” says Carol.

They had the chance to spend more time together because Kaka stood at home recovering from injuries that he had got in the 2010 World Cup. Though he had already been hurt, he had insisted he wanted to play. He learned a lesson. “We learnt football wasn’t everything” he says. “Football is a taboo subject at home. Is it a way not to get stressed.”

Later on, in 2010, Caroline Celico decided that she wanted to make a Gospel CD. There, Kaká would sing with her the very song “Presente de Deus” which, as it was stated before, was written by Kaká and played in their wedding. The album also featured the Brazilian singers Claudia Leitte, and the Brasilian Christian singers André and Ana Paula Valadão. The on-line CD delivered 12 songs that talk about love, friendship and faith in God. 

Hear the single and see it with English subtitles:

They refused to get money from it. "I’m doing this CD to give it away. I will not sell it. I’ll put on a website, so that people can download all the music for free” she stated."I always liked singing, but I did it on the shower. That doesn’t mean that ‘the wife of Kaka will become a singer,’ I created this project to bring a positive message to people,” she said. And that was it. During the first month available, there were more than 15,000 online downloads (though today it is no longer available sadly).

Kaká and Carol joined the 26° "March for Jesus"
which was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2008

In this way, the soccer player proved that he can do both thigs: play soccer, and sing, as long as love is the reason. However, they say they are not planning to make a musical career because they aren't singers at all. 

Kaká describes the birth of their first child and his victories and conquests in football as gifts from God and reafirm that his faith is strong and that's what he wants for his family is this: 

“It is my will that my kids and all the others live according to the will of God. One of my favorite verses is when Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life”. That means that God is everything! and Jesus is the way I will follow.”

In march 2010, Kaká (along with other famous soccer players such as Lucio, Marcos Senna, Nicola Legrotagglie, Cyrille Domoraud  and Oscar Ewolo), shared their Christian testimony in a video named "The Prize -Chasing the dream".