Missed talent Alexandre Pato had great potential, but injuries ruined his career

Year after year, the brains of football fans get a massage in the form of a new load of brand new promising youngsters who will dominate world football in the future. Some will heed the call of the bright future and change the course of football history, but most of them will understandably fail to do so for various reasons. Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato belongs to the latter group.

Beginnings in Porto Alegre

A name that perhaps evokes sadness or even emotion in many. Not to mention the players of the FIFA game series, in which the Brazilian was unstoppable, whether in your team or your opponent’s. And believe me, you didn’t want to have him against you!

Pato started a promising career at Inter Brazil, a club from Porto Alegre. He spent his entire youth career there and started his senior one. However, he didn’t really warm up in his native Brazil as far as adult football is concerned, as his performances caught the attention of many European big clubs. However, it was AC Milan who finally recruited him in 2007.

Dream team AC Milan

In the first three seasons, his involvement seemed to be one of the most successful in the club’s history. The quick-footed youngster was unstoppable. The Pata Branca native’s incisive shot, his choice of position and his healthy youthful impudence adorned him. Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Clarence Seedorf, Kaká, Ronaldinho and David Beckham were among those who played with him at the time. It was the renowned long-range passes of Becks that the young forward was very fond of.

Knowing who you were up against on the pitch must not have been a pleasant way to visit Milan’s football shrine at the time.This famous club from San Siro was even more terrifying.

Unfortunately for Pat, two years almost entirely spent on sick leave came after that. Between injuries, Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva, as his full name sounds, was still playing well, but to inflict a muscle injury three times in less than a year was frustrating.

Even so, he still managed to score the fifth fastest goal in the Champions League, for example, when he took the ball in the middle of the pitch and confidently flicked it far in front of him between Barcelona’s two stoppers. He shamefully outsprinted both defenders and finished uncompromisingly between the legs of goalkeeper Valdes.

Oh, the injuries

But further injuries and, in the following season, poor performances eventually resulted in Pat’s Bidone doro, the award for the worst Serie A player of that season. From then on, a promising career went downhill.

The striker then returned to Brazil, specifically to Corinthians. From there, he was a guest first at Sao Paulo, then London Chelsea, but nowhere did he give any dazzling performances when he was healthy. A move to Villarreal in Spain followed, then to China for two years and back to Sao Paulo, where he played last season.

A great pity. For a footballer who won the 2009 Golden Boy Award for the best footballer under 21, a football career, despite a decent list of well-known football addresses, ultimately has a bitter aftertaste. He was supposed to be the next Brazilian Ronaldo, and his start was more than promising. Had he avoided injury, it would have been a different story.

Source: Transfermarkt, Livesport