Orlando City captain Kaka –once again is going to the MLS All-Star game. On Friday the team announcing that the midfielder has been selected by the fans—marking his third straight trip to the star studded affair.

Kaka was the marquee signee for Orlando City back in 2014 when the team was transitioning to MLS. The 6’1 midfielder and former Brazilian national team member entered the new club with a hefty resume—including a 2002 FIFA World Cup Championship—and a red hot career overseas with AC Milan and Real Madrid.

“This time with Flavio and Orlando –we are very close friends and I thought this was the moment to come,” Kaka said back on July 1, 2014 when he was introduced to media in Orlando. “[This] was the project that I would like to be part of.”

Kaka—with his international star power-- reeled in the highest salary in the league then.   Three years later he is still one of the league’s most expensive players, with a salary guarantee this year of more than $7 million dollars.

But with the big pay check so has come a lot of criticism.  He gets the money regardless of how much he plays, and that’s been less often than expected.

In his first year with Orlando city he missed 12 games due to injury, then another 14 in 2016 and in the season opener this past march Kaka went down with a strained hamstring just 10 minutes into the match.

He’s missed eight games so far this season with only three goals and four assists in his 13 appearances.   Still, the beloved midfielder garnered enough fan votes to send him to his third straight MLS All-Star game.

“It will be amazing to face Real Madrid, [my] former team, former team mates Marcelo [Vieira Da Silva], Cristiano [Ronaldo] –I don’t know who else is going to play that game but it will be awesome to meet them, to share this same field with these guys again,” Kaka said of his selection to the 2017 All-Star Game.  “They just won the Champions League and will be a great, great game at Chicago in August.”

Last year Kaka and Cyle Larin both represented Orlando City at the MLS  All-Star games.   Selections for the rest of the roster will be made in mid-July by Chicago Fire and games head coach Veljko Paunović. The All-Star match will be played August 2nd at Soldier Field in Chicago.

2017 MLS All-Star Fan XI

Goalkeeper: Tim Howard- Colorado Rapids

Defenders: Greg Garza -Atlanta United, Graham Zusi -Sporting Kansas City, DaMarcus Beasley -Houston Dynamo

Midfielders: Bastian Schweinsteiger -Chicago Fire, Miguel Almirón -Atlanta United, Kaká -Orlando City SC, Michael Bradley -Toronto FC

Forwards: David Villa -New York City FC, Nemanja Nikolić -Chicago Fire, Sebastian Giovinco -Toronto FC