Manchester City was bought out by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan's Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008. Soon after, they were out to speedrun to a star-studded team.
At the time, Kaka was the best footballer in the world after winning the last Ballon d'Or before Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo monopolised the award. It was logical that City wanted him and, in January 2009, they offered AC Milan £100m to prize the Brazilian out.
Kaka has recalled those days for ESPN: "It was a very nervous and difficult period. AC Milan had the philosophy not to sell footballers. When someone wanted to quit, they had to make it public. In 2006, Andriy Shevchenko wanted to go to Chelsea but Milan didn't want to sell him. So, Shevchenko had to announce it.
"[But] when an offer came for me from Man City, Adriano Galliani [club's vice president] called me and said: 'For the first time, Milan opens the door to selling a footballer.' At that moment, I saw that things were changing.
"When the word came through, fans started to come to my house to say: 'Don't sell yourself, Kaka, don't sell yourself'. They were also at the club's offices.
"Then the day came and my father said to me I had to decide. I was confident of staying: it wasn't the right time to go. I told so my father, who then communicated it to Man City's people."
Soon afterwards, Italy's then-PM Silvio Berlusconi announced that Kaka would stay. Around 11 pm, Kaka waved an AC Milan shirt in front of fans from the window of his house.
Recalling the day, Kaka said: "There was a big party outside, it was special. I was too close to the club and the fans."
He said of City's offer: "It was crazy, I was going to become the most expensive and most paid footballer of all time. But my decision was to stay. Everything was set for me to go but I didn't want to."
"Even today, when we meet again, Galliani tells me that of all his transfers, mine was the most difficult. But it helped create an even stronger bond with the club."
Kaka eventually left Milan in the summer but for Real Madrid instead. The price reached €67m, which was the second-highest transfer fee at the time.
However, he failed to adapt to life at his new club and injuries didn't help, either. A few years later returned to Milan on a free but it was a much weaker version of Kaka.
As for Man City, it took them a while to assemble a title-winning squad. Their first big-money transfers were mostly flops. They paid Real Madrid a premium for Robinho only to sell him to AC Milan two years later at half the price.
As years passed, City learned to spend money more wisely and the arrivals of Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry, Edin Dzeko, David Silva, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero helped them forge their first Premier League-winning squad.
