Once upon a time, Alexandre Pato was being touted as the next world star of the game – but it didn’t quite work out that way.
Pato burst onto the scene with Internacional back in 2006, scoring 12 goals in 27 first-team games to earn himself a dream move to AC Milan.
His record of 63 goals in 150 games for the Italian side was far from a disgrace, but he has been something of a nomad ever since leaving Milan in 2013.
Pato has turned out for Corinthians, Sao Paulo, Chelsea, Villarreal, Tianjin Quanjian and Sao Paulo again, struggling for consistent success outside of his first Sao Paulo spell and his stint in China.
Now 31, Pato hasn’t lived up to his billing, and hasn’t received a single Brazil cap since 2013. Having been released by Sao Paulo, he is now hunting for a new club.
Remarkably, Pato could be heading to the Championship, as Sportal and Calciomercato both report that Birmingham City want to sign Pato.
Italian sides Genoa, Spezia and Monza all want to sign Pato too, with the latter an interesting proposition given that Silvio Berlusconi owns them and was Milan owner during Pato’s time at the club.
Still, Birmingham fans have got to be pretty excited about this one. Pato won the 2009 Golden Boy award, he’s in AC Milan Hall of Fame and was even compared to Ronaldo by Dunga in 2007.
To see him turn out at St Andrews would be quite remarkable, and fans will now be fascinated to see whether anything comes of this rather bizarre rumour.
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