Kaka- Soccer

Lying in bed for two months with a broken neck, 18-year-old Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite made a list of 10 goals. Nevermind the fact that he was uncertain to ever play football again after fracturing his sixth vertebra at the bottom of a waterslide.

These were remarkable dreams for a boy raised during the football mania of Brazil — especially one who had needed a medical program and who had yet to make the starting lineup of the junior squad of São Paulo Football Club. The list began with “Return to football” and finished with “Compete in the World Cup” and “Transfer to a big club in Italy or Germany.”

About two weeks after returning to football, he was called up to São Paulo’s professional team. With 10 minutes remaining, he was subbed into the finals of the prestigious Rio-São Paulo match. São Paulo trailed Botafogo 1-0 when the midfielder received a high, looping pass, flipped it behind the back of a defender and fired a low shot beneath the diving goalkeeper. Two minutes later he netted another low rocket to clinch the championship as TV announcers shouted “Goooooooooooooooal!”